A climbing guide atop Mount Everest captured video of the crowded summit ridge before a cornice collapsed in a tragedy in which two climbers went missing.
A second video taken by the climbing guide, Vinayak Malla, and posted on Instagram showed the aftermath in which four climbers managed to self-rescue. The footage shows two of the four climbers scrambling to reach the safety of the ridge line.
Malla explained the situation in his post.
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“The Everest summit ridge felt different than my previous experiences on the mountain,” Malla wrote. “There was soft snow, many cornices and rocky sections covered in snow. The weather station was even half buried in snow.
“After summiting, we crossed the Hillary Step, traffic was moving slowly then suddenly a cornice collapsed a few meters ahead of us. There was also a cornice under us.
“As the cornice collapsed, four climbers nearly perished yet were clipped onto the rope and self-rescued. Sadly, two climbers are still missing.”
There is also little hope of finding Daniel Paul Peterson of the UK or his guide Pastenji Sherpa. The pair probably fell down the Kangchung Face of the mountain yesterday when the cornice they stepped on broke. Four other climbers were rescued in the incident, thanks to the fixed rope.
In a separate incident, Kenyan climber Joshua Cheruiyot Kirue’s body was discovered near the ridge between Hillary Step and the summit while his guide, Nawang Sherpa, remains missing, according to ExplorersWeb.
“Kirue is the third confirmed death on Everest this season, after Mongolian climbers Usukhjargal Tsedendamba and Prevsuren Lkhagvajav,” ExplorersWeb reported. “It is the fourth death if we count Romanian Gabriel Tabara, who passed away in his tent at Camp 3 while attempting Lhotse. All four dead climbers intended to summit without supplementary O2.”
ExplorersWeb also reported that Malla’s actions might have saved many lives.
“We tried to traverse, but it was impossible due to the traffic on the fixed line,” Malla explained in his Instagram post. “Many climbers were stuck in traffic and oxygen was running low. I was able to start breaking a new route for the descending traffic to begin moving slowly once again.”
Valla’s third video in his Instagram post shows the climbers passing after he repaired the route.
Malla and his two clients summited Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 29,029 feet, at 6 a.m. on Tuesday. The trio were back at Base Camp on Wednesday.
