2015 Mount Everest avalanches

Event Information

• Date: April 25, 2015
• Place: Nepal
• Result: 22 dead and 61 injured

Overview

Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain and is located in Nepal and China, with the summit bordering these two countries. People from around the world travel to Everest to climb, often taking several days to reach the top. A series of base camps are constructed at stopping points along the routes up the mountain, and many are satisfied with reaching one of the camps; others are only satisfied if they reach the summit.

Climbers will often train for several years to prepare their bodies and then will hire guides, known as Sherpas, to help carry gear, cook food, and lead them up the mountain. Sherpas, who are native to the area, often have extensive knowledge of the region. They are also physically accustomed to the high elevations of the mountains, which allows them to move more easily up and down the mountain than others who come from areas with lower elevations.

Climbing Everest can be dangerous even in good weather conditions. Poor weather alters the snow and rocks on the mountain, and climbers are likely to experience more difficult conditions, whiteouts, and/or avalanches. A region known as the Khumbu Icefall, which is on the Nepali side of Everest and is made up of ice that has fallen from the Khumbu Glacier, contains tower-like piles of ice that are known as seracs. During the day the seracs break apart and fall without warning, sending large portions of ice and rock hurtling down the mountain. Climbers will often try to move through the region during the night before the heat of the sun begins to melt the ice and move. Ladders are also used to help climbers move between icefall towers and across crevasses. Even with these precautions, climbers are at risk when ice begins to move.

Avalanches often occur on Mount Everest, especially along the Khumbu Icefall. On April 18, 2014, sixteen Sherpa guides were killed in the Khumbu Icefall when an avalanche tore through an area referred to as the "popcorn field." The guides had been carrying climbing gear and supplies between camps when the avalanche hit. The mountain was closed to climbers while the Sherpas’ bodies were recovered, and all expeditions were then canceled for the remainder of the climbing season. It was Mount Everest’s worst tragedy to date in terms of number of lives lost.

One year later, on April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, which resulted in multiple avalanches at Mount Everest and wide-spread death and destruction throughout the country. The avalanches, which included massive amounts of snow, rocks, and ice, killed twenty-two Sherpas and international climbers who were camping at the mountain’s base camp, among them Dan Fredinburg, a Google Earth engineer hoping to expand the company’s Street View feature to mountains around the world. An additional sixty-one people were also injured on the mountain that day. A second earthquake on May 12, which scientists explained was an aftershock of the initial quake, had a magnitude of 7.3 and resulted in additional avalanches. The mountain was then closed to climbers for the remainder of the 2015 season.

It is not uncommon that bodies are unable to be recovered from Mount Everest. Rescue workers face dangerous and life-threatening conditions trying to reach them and must consider their own safety. In April 2015, rescue workers were able to recover and return all of the bodies of those who died, and despite small windows of safe flying weather and helicopters that could only shuttle two to three climbers in each flight, all 140 injured and stranded climbers were airlifted from the mountain where they had been trapped, many without tents or supplies to withstand the frigid temperatures, for three days. Most of the injured were evacuated to China, Japan, and South Korea to receive medical attention. It was estimated that 1,000 climbers were on the mountain that day, many of whom had returned to climb Everest after their 2014 expeditions were canceled following the avalanche and resulting deaths the year before.

Impact

Following the April 2015 avalanche, several climbers requested to continue their expeditions, and although the Nepali Department of Tourism agreed, the decision was reversed when the major aftershock of May 12 occurred. Mount Everest eventually reopened to climbers, but weather conditions and a lack of climbing aids such as ladders and ropes meant that no one was able to reach the summit during the 2015 season—something that had not happened since 1974.

In the fall of 2015, the Nepali government announced new regulations that banned inexperienced climbers from being granted permits to climb Everest. Only those with experience climbing mountains over 6,500 meters (21,325 feet) would be allowed. Individuals under eighteen or over seventy-five years old or suffering from a disability would be banned as well. Although tourism and climbers bring much needed income to Nepal and to the Sherpas, it is expensive to mount rescue missions that could have been prevented by ensuring that hikers were better prepared.

The 2015 Mount Everest avalanche also prompted national reforms designed to protect the Sherpas on whom foreign climbers rely. Sherpa guides are often tasked with carrying climbers’ equipment and making sure that routes are safe. However, they often receive very small payments and minimal, if any, health insurance. The deaths of the Sherpa guides in the 2014 and 2015 avalanches have severely affected their families, who were dependent on the guides’ minimal wages and were not protected by life insurance or other savings.

Bibliography

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