A British-led team of mountaineers has carved a new route past a skyscraper-sized ice block on Everest, reopening the summit path and triggering a fresh wave of ascents. Sources on the ground confirm that the serac, which collapsed onto the traditional Hillary Step route earlier this week, has been bypassed via a steep ice ramp to the left. The breakthrough came after three days of intensive work by Sherpas and expedition guides, using ice screws and fixed ropes to secure the passage.
Uncovered documents from the Nepalese tourism ministry show that at least six expeditions had been halted, stranding over 40 climbers at Camp 4. The British team, led by veteran guide Simon Yates of Sheffield, was first to reach the summit late yesterday. 'It was a knife-edge traverse,' Yates told my colleague via satellite phone. 'The ice is unstable, but we had no choice. The deadline is ticking.'
Deadline is right. The window for summit attempts closes within days as the jet stream returns. Every hour of delay risks catching climbers in the death zone above 8,000 metres. This is where the money is: each permit costs £11,000, with total expedition fees exceeding £2 million. The Nepalese government, which has taken a quiet cut, is desperate to see climbers reach the top before the season ends.
But here's what the glossy brochures don't tell you. The ice block, now estimated at 50 feet tall, is a symptom of a warming mountain. Temperatures at Everest base camp have risen by 1.5°C over the past decade. Thawing permafrost is freeing boulders and ice that have been locked for millennia. The Khumbu Icefall, already a death trap, is becoming more unpredictable. One climber I spoke to described it as 'a casino in slow motion'.
And the bodies. Every season they stay buried, then emerge as the ice retreats. This year, at least two previously unknown corpses have been spotted near the new route. No one has stopped to identify them. There's no time, and no profit in dead bodies.
So the game continues. British climbers lead, as they have for a century. But this isn't Mallory's Everest. This is a commodity, a spectacle for wealthy thrill-seekers and a cash cow for a poor country. The ice block will melt, or break, or kill someone. But for now, it's just an obstacle. The summit awaits.
