The Everest Politics Show by Mark Horrell

Author:Mark Horrell [Horrell, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mountaineering, nepal, everest, himalayas
Publisher: Mark Horrell
Published: 2016-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

The moment when a gigantic avalanche engulfs the entire breadth of the Khumbu Icefall

A few thoughts pass through my mind. First there is incredulity. ‘Are we really about to go up into that thing?’ I think to myself.

But a moment later a sense of relief washes over me. ‘Thank heavens our Sherpas aren’t up there now.’

This feeling intensifies when I think how late we set off this morning. Yesterday we discussed the possibility of leaving at three o’clock to give us a chance to climb while the ice was hard. None of us relished getting up so early when we were only thinking of doing a short walk, and after some thought we rejected the plan. I feel a sharp sensation in the pit of my stomach. Had we done so, then there is every chance we would have been right up there at the critical moment. That cloud would have swallowed us.

Over the years I’ve heard many eyewitness accounts from people who have been in the Icefall when an avalanche fell. They all described a moment of panic when they heard it crashing down, but didn’t know where it was coming from. They had just enough time to duck behind the most sheltered ice tower they could find, where they spent a few nervous moments wondering what fate had in store for them. They felt a woof of air, then a light – or sometimes heavy – dusting of snow. Finally there was relief. They survived to tell the story, after all.

Avalanches in the Icefall don’t have to be fatal; it’s possible to survive them. But this one was so enormous it hardly seems possible…

I don’t know for how long these thoughts pass through my mind. Rarely in my life have I had to face tragedy. My first instinct is to assume things will be OK, however unlikely that may seem. But I soon realise that there are sure to be Sherpas from other teams up there.

Jay has been into the Icefall before, when he attempted Everest a few years ago. For the next few minutes we swap stories of risk and danger, refusing to accept what we’ve just seen.

Up ahead of us, Ian, Robert, Kevin and Louis were walking together when they heard a loud crack. They looked up in time to see a huge section of ice collapse from the West Shoulder. It crashed onto the northern edge of the valley floor, triggering the tidal wave of snow that we watched sweep all the way across to the other side.

We catch up with them at the bottom of the glacier.

‘Did you see that avalanche?’ I ask.

‘Hell, yeah,’ Robert says. ‘Man, that’s bad news. There’s people up there.’

It’s not until Dorje arrives that I realise the scale of the horror that’s about to unfold – that is unfolding as we stand there, looking up into the ice.

‘How many Sherpa?’ I ask him, pointing up the Icefall.

‘Maybe forty, fifty,’ he replies. His expression is serious, yet otherwise inscrutable.

He is a veteran of these mountains, and he must have understood the consequences much quicker than I did.

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