Climate change

Giant Chunk of Glacier Blocks Mount Everest Route

Is Everest's 2026 ice blockage a climate crisis demanding new routes or just the Icefall's same old deadly risks?

APR 24·Updated APR 25

Giant Chunk of Glacier Blocks Mount Everest Route

Story

Above: A DJI drone flying over Khumbu Icefall on April 30, 2024. Image credit: Xinhua/Getty Images

The Facts

An unstable serac — a roughly 100-foot-high block of glacial ice — is blocking the Khumbu Icefall route near Camp I on Mount Everest in Nepal, preventing icefall doctors from fixing ropes and ladders along a critical section. The delay has reportedly pushed preparations several weeks behind schedule.
NDTV
BBC News
The icefall doctors, deployed by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, have found no safe way around or over the serac, with teams forced to wait for it to melt or collapse.
CNN
Guardian
MSN
Nepal's Department of Tourism is considering airlifting rope-fixing teams and equipment by helicopter directly to Camp II so work can continue above the blocked section. Favorable weather for Everest ascents is typically available only until the end of May.
The Kathmandu Post
The Straits Times
Nepal has issued climbing permits to 944 mountaineers from 76 countries across 30 peaks for the Spring 2026 season, generating total royalties of $6,912,321. Everest alone accounts for 410 of those permits across 41 teams.
The Himalayan Times
CNA
In this season, mountaineer Nirmal Purja recorded his 50th ascent of an 8,000-meter peak on Dhaulagiri on April 18 — a world record. A rescue on Annapurna also took place after a climber went missing above 7,700 meters on April 19.
The Himalayan Times
BBC News
The Khumbu Icefall has a history of deadly serac collapses, including a 2014 incident in which a collapsing serac triggered an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides. In 2023, three Nepali guides were killed when falling glacial ice swept them into a crevasse while crossing the icefall.
The Kathmandu Post
CNA

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The Spin

Climate-concerned narrative

A massive ice block above Everest Base Camp has shut down the 2026 climbing season, holding up hundreds of climbers and Sherpa guides during the critical spring window. The Khumbu Icefall's shifting seracs and accelerating melt from global warming make this blockage a sign of worsening conditions, not a routine hazard. Alternative routes exist — the Sundari Route discovered in 2021 bypasses the Icefall entirely and deserves serious adoption.

Himalayan Partner

Climate-skeptic narrative

The Khumbu Icefall has always been this dangerous — it moves roughly one meter daily, seracs collapse without warning and crevasses drop over 100 meters deep. The 2026 blockage is not some new climate crisis but the same deadly maze that has claimed 47 lives since 1953. Climbers and expedition operators know the risks going in, and the real solution is better timing and Sherpa expertise, not alarm over routine glacial behavior.