Climbing Season on Mount Everest Has Been Delayed

The 2024 spring climbing season on Mount Everest is delayed due to crumbling ice in the Khumbu Glacier.

On April 17, in advance of climbing teams, Nepali workers completed the pathway through the infamous Khumbu Icefall, a labyrinthine section of the glacier that is riddled with crevasses, precarious ice towers, and other deadly obstacles. The section is the site of frequent tragedy, and in 2023 three workers died when a house-sized block of ice fell on them.

Every year, a team of specialized workers called the Icefall Doctors charts the official route through the shifting glacier by fixing ropes up frozen cliffs and laying ladders across deep pits. It’s painstaking and heroic work, and nobody can advance from Base Camp to Camp I until the path is established.

This spring, a cavalcade of dangers slowed the Icefall Doctors, leading to a major delay in opening the icefall corridor.

“We looked at two or three different routes, but the ice there was too fragile and risky—we were struggling to place ladders and ropes along the section,” Pemba Tshering, an Icefall Doctor, told Outside on Friday. “In many places we found popcorn-like sections of ice. It implies that the surface is irregular and crumbly, making the walk over it potentially dangerous, so we had to spend more time looking for a reliable route.”

Pemba Tshering said the eight Icefall Doctors arrived in Everest Base Camp on March 8 and immediately went to work building the pathway. Poor winter snowfall and warm temperatures had created unstable ice towers and bridges, which the team attempted to circumnavigate. No two years’ routes through the Khumbu Icefall are exactly alike—the shifting glacier frequently forces the Icefall Doctors to deviate. This year initially attempted to follow the approximate route used in 2023, but retreated on two separate occasions and eventually abandoned that way altogether.

Finally, after days of trial and error, they completed the linkup to Camp I this week. Pemba Tshering said the 2024 route follows one that guides used during the 2017 climbing season. But this way adds approximately two hours to the climbing time when compared to the one used in recent years.

“Between 500 and 600 people are supposed to walk through the route, so we have to ensure that it is very safe,” he said.

In the two days since the Icefall Doctors completed the path, teams of porters and guides have ascended from Base Camp to higher camps to build tents and leave supplies for upcoming summit pushes, which traditionally happen in mid-May. Over the next few weeks, climbers will venture above Base Camp for acclimatization.

The delays pushed the official start of Everest climbing season back by approximately 12 days, says Tshering Sherpa of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a Nepali NGO that oversees waste disposal at Base Camp. “Usually we are ready by the first week of April, but this year there wasn’t any snow over the winter,” he said.

How the delay will impact climbing teams is yet to be seen. Tshering Tenjing Sherpa, the Base Camp manager for the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, said he did not expect the late start to change the timing for when teams leave for the top. American guide Garrett Madison with Madison Mountaineering told Outside that his expedition was “business as usual,” and that his guides had already ascended to Camp II to reserve a camping spot.

But the delay has placed some expedition operators in a predicament. Tashi Sherpa, chairman of the Nepali guiding company 14 Peaks Expedition, said his porters may have to work longer hours than expected to haul gear up to higher camps. 14 Peaks is one of the largest expedition operators on Mount Everest, with approximately 100 clients for 2024.

“This means it is a rush for us. There is no time to handle everything now,” Tashi Sherpa said. “I think the Sherpa will not get so many rest days this year because they have to work very hard now.”

Tashi Sherpa told Outside that he intends to lobby Nepali officials to allow 14 Peaks Expedition to ferry gear to Camp I and Camp II via helicopter. Earlier this year officials with the Khumbu-Pasang Lhamu village, the local municipality that has authority over Everest Base Camp, prohibited such gear transport to higher camps. Gear and food must instead be carried by human power.

But Tashi Sherpa worries that ferrying everything by human power places workers in danger.

“It is so dangerous to carry everything through the icefall by Sherpa, so I think the government should understand and let us use helicopters,” Tashi Sherpa said. “People’s lives are very important. How can you send one Sherpa 20 times through the Khumbu Icefall when it is this risky?”

As of Friday, April 19, Nepali officials had not announced a rule change on helicopter transport.

Other Nepali operators echoed Tashi Sherpa, including his co-chairman Mingma Sherpa, who told Everest Chronicle that he, too, planned to lobby officials to allow helicopter transport to Camp I and Camp II. The publication also quoted an unnamed source that said this year’s compressed schedule would place Sherpa and paying climbing clients in danger.

“There would be around 500 to 600 Sherpas who would have to make at least seven rounds between the base camp and Camp I, Camp 2, and Camp 3. And there would be hundreds of climbers who would make at least two to three rounds during the acclimatization. That means there would be 7,000 human feet crossing such a sensitive stretch which is susceptible to serac collapse and avalanche. Allowing helicopters to carry large load would reduce the stress on the fragile ice,” the unnamed operator said.

Ben Ayers and Tulsi Rauniyar contributed to this report.