Ice collapse closes Lhotse Face of Mount Everest

Kathmandu / April 28: An ice collapse has closed the Lhotse Face, a steep ice slope on the way to the Camp III, on Thursday morning, affecting the acclimatisation schedule of the world climbers who are now making rotations above the higher camps on Mt Everest.

“All teams retreat to the Camp II as an ice collapse has closed the Lhotse face this morning,” Daniel Lee Mazur posted on his Facebook page.

According to him, the climbers are now studying the safety options: ladders versus long detours. Mazur is on higher camps for acclimatisation with an eight-member expedition team locally managed by Everest Parivar Treks.

The climbers use ropes to attempt to reach to the Camp III and above through the icy slope.

On Wednesday, a few teams of Sherpas had climbed the Lhotse Face to the Camp III while other climbers rested up in the Camp II, according to Karma Sherpa, a mountain guide with Himalayan Guides Nepal treks and Expeditions.

Meanwhile, The Himalayan Times daily quoted a Cape Town mountaineer, Ronnie Muhl, as informing that a Sherpa was evacuated to Lukla for treatment this morning after he collapsed up at Camp I.

“He was immediately placed on O2 and was immediately airlifted to Lukla for further observation and tests,” the team leader of an 11-member Adventure Global Everest Expedition managed by Dream Himalaya Adventures Pvt Ltd added.

In the last six days, two mountaineers – Patrik Mattioli (Switzerland) and Jon David Johnson (Austria) – died after falling from a fixing rope into an icy crevasse on Mt Shisha Pangma (8027 m) in China while Japanese climber Hidenori Hagidied and a Korean trekker died of altitude sickness in Khumbu region.

According to Garret Madison, team leader of Madison Mountaineering Everest Expedition, all 11 members of his team had a great climb up to Camp II and they are now resting in the base camp and preparing for the next rotation to the Camp III.