{"id":40690,"date":"2022-04-21T13:03:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T19:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=40690"},"modified":"2022-04-21T13:03:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T19:03:04","slug":"everest-2022-climbers-begin-rotations-and-into-the-icefall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/21\/everest-2022-climbers-begin-rotations-and-into-the-icefall\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2022: Climbers Begin Rotations and Into the Icefall"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

It’s begun. Teams are now at Camps 1 and 2 on their first rotation. There are a very low number of ladders in the Icefall this year, only four. Work continues on Nuptse as an alternative to the Icefall. Everest permits are nearing 300. A deep dive into the Khumbu Icefall.<\/p>\r\n

Big Picture<\/h2>\r\n

Climbing on Everest is in full swing with pujas completed, ropes to C2, members on their rotations, and hard-working Sherpas stocking all the camps. The Full Circle Everest<\/a> team is at EBC:<\/p>\r\n

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The team has been at Everest Base Camp for a few days now, resting and acclimating. Our first acclimation climb was today to Pu Mor\u00ed camp I which is at 19,000 feet (5,781m). We are off to go somewhere in the icefall tomorrow. Our team is fine, the weather, cold and snowing<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

IMG<\/a> notes their team is headed for a trip halfway into the Icefall. Many teams do this so the members can get a feel before the real deal.<\/div>\r\n
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Just off the phone with Expedition Leader Andy Polloczek who said everyone is doing great and excited to head up the Icefall for the Dry Run in the morning. The first trip into the Khumbu Icefall is called a Dry Run because we are not going all the way to Camp\u00a01 but instead, getting into the Icefall for an opportunity to get a feel for the ups and downs of the\u00a0route.<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
However, Adventure Peaks<\/a> and Madison Mountaineering<\/a> are already at Camp 1. From AP:<\/div>\r\n
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Our expedition leader Stu peacock phoned to say the Adventure Peaks team is making good progress and have spent nights now at Camp 1 and are currently up at Camp 2 on their first main rotation. They are hoping to reach the bottom of the Lhotse Face today. The Sherpa team have done an incredible job getting Camp 2 set up so quickly.<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
and Madison:<\/div>\r\n
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Hello from Camp 1! We left base camp at 2 a.m. and had good climbing conditions through the Khumbu Icefall<\/a> with few people on the route. The team is strong, healthy overall. We\u2019re looking forward to an acclimatization day here tomorrow before moving up to Camp 2.<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The 8000ers<\/h2>\r\n

Teams are still on hold waiting for better weather on Kangchunga<\/strong> and Annapurna<\/strong>, including 83-year-old Carlos Soria. However, climbing has begun on Makalu<\/strong>. Alpenglow<\/a> gives us this update:<\/p>\r\n

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The Makalu <\/a>athlete teams have made it into Advanced Case Camp at 19,000′ (5,791m), their new home for the next 6 weeks or so. As they settle in, they’re starting to plan and get organized for the technical climbing above, discussing rope fixing strategy and checking the weather.\u00a0Karl Egloff <\/a>and Nicolas Miranda<\/a> have started to push above ABC, making their way to touch C2 (6,200m) and coming back down to ABC as an acclimatization trek.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Kangchenjunga, the world’s 3rd highest peak, has the third most permits issued after Everest and Lhotse with 67 climbers on 6 teams. The Canadian John Gill’s ‘CanKan<\/a>‘ team, supported by\u00a0Namgya Sherpa’s Grand Himalaya Treks & Expedition<\/span><\/a>\u00a0reports in<\/p>\r\n

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Climbers have made it to mid camp on Yalung glacier, 4,850m. Hazardous day crossing loose rubble and ice with snow falling all day. Tomorrow should reach BC (basecamp)…6 hours left until they reach basecamp now as I post this. First view of Kanchenjunga today, lookin’ huge!<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

That’s all of today’s news. Now let’s take a look at the Khumbu Icefall and why it’s so feared.<\/p>\r\n

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A River of Ice that is Melting<\/h3>\r\n

Everything starts with\u00a0the Khumbu Glacier, a 10-mile\/17km river of ice that begins high on the\u00a0Lhotse Face around 25,000’\/7,600m. The Khumbu Icefall is the section\u00a0between Everest Base Camp 17,300’\/5270m and just below where Camp 1 is usually located, 19,500’\/5943m.<\/p>\r\n

Once it leaves Lhotse,\u00a0the glacier\u00a0defines the Western Cwm for about 2 miles before dropping\u00a0rapidly to create the Khumbu Icefall for\u00a02.5 miles. \u00a0Around Everest Base Camp (EBC), the glacier makes a sharp southernly bend and continues\u00a0another 6 miles\/9.6km to 16,000’\/4,900m. The Icefall varies in width\u00a0from over half a mile\/800m to a third of a mile\/500m.<\/p>\r\n

\"Everest<\/a>
Everest Southeast Ridge Route Map. Courtesy of www.alanarnette.com \u00a9 reproduction prohibited without authorization<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

As with all glaciers, the Khumbu moves,\u00a0as much as 3’\/1m a day in the center while barely\u00a0moving at\u00a0the edges due to friction against\u00a0rock walls. The top of the glacier moves faster than the bottom\u00a0due to friction against\u00a0the earth. It is this dynamic of fast and slow-moving sections plus the precipitous drop that creates the deep crevasses, some over 150’\/45m deep, and towering ice seracs over 30’\/9m high.<\/p>\r\n

Melting<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

According to the Kathmandu-based mountain research institute,\u00a0ICIMOD<\/a>, the Khumbu Glacier is melting but not as fast as many other glaciers due to its altitude. It is the highest glacier on earth. It is estimated to be retreating about 65’\/20m\u00a0per year and has shrunk about 3,100’\/940m\u00a0between the 1960s and\u00a02001. 1<\/sup><\/p>\r\n

However, in a February 2022 scientific analyst, Mt. Everest\u2019s highest glacier is a sentinel for accelerating ice loss<\/a> shouts an alarming alarm:<\/p>\r\n

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Mountain glacier systems are decreasing in volume worldwide yet relatively little is known about their upper reaches (>5000\u2009m). Here we show, based on the world\u2019s highest ice core and highest automatic weather stations, the significant and increasing role that melting and sublimation have on the mass loss of even Mt. Everest\u2019s highest glacier (South Col Glacier, 8020\u2009m). Estimated contemporary thinning rates approaching ~2\u2009m\u2009a\u22121 water equivalent (w.e.) indicate several decades of accumulation may be lost on an annual basis now that glacier ice has been exposed. These results identify extreme sensitivity to glacier surface type for high altitude Himalayan ice masses and forewarn of rapidly emerging impacts as Mt. Everest\u2019s highest glacier appears destined for rapid retreat<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The glacier\u00a0has\u00a0thinned\u00a0by 177’\/54m over most of its length. Everest Base Camp is lower today due to the ice melting. In 1953 when Hillary and Tenzing summited, EBC was about 17,454’\/5320m; today it is 17,322’\/5280m.<\/p>\r\n

Between 1962 and 2002 the Icefall\u00a0thinned by an average of 56’\/17m, about a rate of 1.3’\/39cm per year.<\/p>\r\n

Long-time Everest guide Russell Brice commented told me in an interview<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 that this melting may result in a safer Icefall for climbers. But he added\u00a0the Western Cwm may one day become the major obstacle of the South Col route:<\/p>\r\n

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But on Everest looking at photos from above, it seems that the Icefall between BC and C1 is actually getting easier and arguably safer. It also seems that several of the hanging glaciers above the Icefall are now leaning back and seem to be less active than what we experienced in 2012, again this can be explained by the warm temperatures at this altitude.<\/p>\r\n

However it seems to me that the crevasses between C1 and C2 are getting deeper and are now longer which results in climbers having to walk longer distances as they zig zag through these crevasses, and of course this has also resulted in some longer ladder crossings over very deep crevasses. I will not be surprised to see that we will need more ladders between C1 and C2 than before. Maybe even at the bottom of the Lhotse Face as well.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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Judging by the reports from 2022, it appears the long-time Everest veteran, who has now sold his company, Himex, was spot on. The route through the Icefall is faster with only four ladders in 2022 and flatter while the trek between C1 and C2 has to navigate massive crevasses.<\/p>\r\n

The First Icefall Climbs<\/h3>\r\n
\"Early<\/a>
Early Everest Crevasse Crossing. Courtesy of National Geographic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

George Mallory while seeking a route to climb to the summit of Everest is said to have sighted the Icefall in the early 1920s and said it was “terribly steep and broken …\u00a0all in all the approach to the mountain from Tibet is easier<\/a>“5<\/sup> thus\u00a0shifted his efforts to Tibet.<\/p>\r\n

It wasn’t until 1950 when Charlie Houston\u00a0and\u00a0Bill Tilman led a British reconnaissance team to scout a possible route from Nepal that the Khumbu Icefall was considered feasible.<\/p>\r\n

In 1951, another British team led by Eric Shipton climbed thru the Icefall but stopped just short of the top due to a wide crevasse. To cross the crevasses, the early expeditions used long tree trunks brought up from the treeline after they ran out of ladders.<\/p>\r\n

A 1952 Swiss team overcame that\u00a0obstacle by climbing into the crevasse and crossing a dangerous snow bridge. They reached 8500 meters using today’s Southeast Ridge route but failed to summit. Of course, John Hunt’s 1953\u00a0British expedition made the first summit using that same route.<\/p>\r\n

The Hazards<\/h3>\r\n

There are multiple hazards within the Icefall that have taken lives. I used the Himalayan Database<\/a> to analyze the non-illness deaths between 17,500’\/5400m and 19,500’\/5940m and that was in the Icefall proper. There were 45 total deaths in the Icefall or 23% of the 194 total deaths on the Nepal side from 1950 to 2021.<\/p>\r\n

The 45 deaths broke down as:<\/p>\r\n