The Khumbu Ice Fall

A brief hike beyond the village of Gorak Shep high in the Khumbu region is the foot of Mt. Everest, and towering above Base Camp is the formidable Khumbu Ice Fall. This living monument of nature's extremes is the gatekeeper to expeditions attempting to access the Western Cwm and to summit Mt. Everest, Lohtse and Nuptse. The Ice Fall is literally like a waterfall, but convulsing in slow motion on a geologic time scale. The steep slope leading down from the Western Cwn, the great valley between the great peaks, collects vast amounts of packed snow and ice and presses below with immense pressure. The ice flows down and as it reaches the breech of the Cwm the sheets of ice buckle under and compact into a deep, slowly churning torrent. Through the daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations the ice open and closes enormous crevasses, or fissures, which swallow and grind up anything it catches.

This is the first and perhaps most dangerous part of the ascent. The ice shift and snaps its jaws unpredictably, so climbing the steep mass of ice can turn deadly at any time. In order to traverse the crevasses the Sherpa sirdar and his crew will break the trail by fixing aluminum ladders across the length and the expeditioners cross the precarious span with their fingers crossed. Many climbers meet bad luck and slip off of the ladders or a fissure suddenly opens wide and swallows them whole. The drop is steep, often one to two hundred feet down, and rescue is often out of the question. Again slowly the ice continues to shift, grinding the unfortunate victim's body, and it may quickly close up leaving no trace. Years later, as the ice melts, freezes, and continues to shift, the frozen and dismembered remnants of the unlucky climbers will push out and roll from the maw of the ice, soon to be swallowed up again. This barrier was evidently formed as a sanity check for anyone with a drive to challenge the planet's highest summit.