We’re smack in the middle of the 2017 Everest season, and it’s already shaping up to be a big one. To date, over a 100 people have summited the world’s highest mountain from both Nepal’s South Col route and Tibet’s North Face route . This year’s climbs already includes the first ascent by a visually impaired person, an aborted speed climb, many Indian ascents and, adding to the excitement, a would-be climber who was operating without a permit was arrested by Nepalese authorities. There have also been, sadly, six deaths, including that of an Indian climber, Ravi Kumar.
While the summit pushes are in full swing, the most intriguing piece of news to come out so far is the report that the famous Hillary Step, a formidable rocky outcrop just under the main summit on the South Col route has collapsed, possibly due to the devastating earthquake of 2015.
For some years now, two permanent metal ladders had been lashed to the Step, one for those going up, and the other for those descending from the summit. Right now, due to excessive snow, a temporary snow ridge has formed in that area, which climbers are using to ‘bypass’ the step. However, if the snow were to subside, and the Step were found to be really gone, then this would result in an even larger bottleneck, imperilling the lives of everyone on the south side of Everest.