In late July, 2022, Nepali mountaineers Pasdawa Sherpa and his uncle Dawa Ongju Sherpa were breaking trail high on the summit ridge of 26,414-foot Broad Peak in Pakistan. The two were working as guides for Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, who was attempting to set a speed record for summiting the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, which is currently held by Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja.

In an instant, an avalanche swept two Sherpas off the ridge. Alive but shaken, they freed themselves and continued towards the summit, only to be hit by another slide.

“At that point we knew we should turn back” Dawa Ongju told ���ϳԹ���. “But we thought, ‘If we live, we live. If we die, we die. It doesn’t matter.’ So we risked our lives and continued on to the summit.”

“We did it all for Kristin,” he said.

The trio continued, eventually reaching the top. Broad Peak was the eighth summit that Harila reached alongside the two men, and her success and unorthodox climbing strategy drew attention from international media. Other record seekers on the high peaks often use fresh teams of sherpas for each mountain, but Harila told the media that she wanted to make history alongside her two guides, both of whom work for outfitter 8K Expeditions. “Pasdawa and Uncle Dawa are amazing.” Harila told me in May, 2022. “I would love to share the record with them. I don’t need it to be focused on myself.”

But in November 2022, the relationship between the three abruptly dissolved, despite the trio having two more mountains to ascend: 26,864-foot Cho Oyu and 26,335-foot Shishapangma. Both peaks are typically climbed from China, but the country’s borders were closed due to the pandemic, and Harila couldn’t secure permits to enter the country. She planned a winter ascent of Cho Oyu from the Nepal side, but Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju were conspicuously absent from her roster. Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju did not provide specifics for why they stopped working with Harila, but a representative from 8K Expeditions said in a March 2023 interview that there was a disagreement over payment.

Harila’s Cho Oyu bid was unsuccessful, and a few weeks later she announced plans to pursue the speed record on the 14 peaks in 2023 alongside a different outfitter—but she invited Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju to join her on her first two climbs in April, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, so they could complete the 14 peaks together.

���ϳԹ��� spoke to Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju in April, 2023, and they admitted that the situation left them with hurt feelings, but they both wished Harila well on her 2023 attempt. “We were planning to share the record, so of course this hurts.” Dawa Ongju said. “We struggled together, and we put our lives on the line for her. But I give her my blessings.”

Shortly afterwards, their permits to climb the peaks from the Chinese side were not approved, and Harila wound up climbing without them. When their travel plans fell apart for the second time, their feelings changed. Dawa Ongju wrote an icy message on Facebook. “We carried all the gear, backpacks, crampons, clothes, water bottles, oxygen canisters, camera, backup batteries, food and all the equipment while giving priority to Kristin. She did not have to lay a single meter of rope nor tie a single knot. After receiving our cancelled [sic] passports back we were shocked and dumbfounded,” he wrote. ���ϳԹ��� reached out to the Chinese consulate in Kathmandu about the travel problems but did not receive a response. Six days after their travel plans fell through, Harila summited Cho Oyu, and by the end of May she had climbed four additional 8,000-meter peaks.

Harila also declined to discuss specifics of why she chose to work with a different expedition operator in 2023. “I think people believe that this was our project, but the thing is like it was actually my project from the start,” she told�����ܳٲ��������in April 2023.

The dissolved relationship highlights a lopsided power dynamic that has existed for decades in Himalayan mountaineering. Western climbers often earn celebrity status and sponsorship cash for ascending the highest peaks. The media attention generated by these accomplishments fuels their future expeditions, and sometimes even helps them navigate the tricky diplomatic barriers that stand in the way of the mountains. But the high-altitude workers who help them rarely achieve stardom or wealth. Their climbing and survival skills in the world’s harshest climate are among the best, and their job is difficult and dangerous. And when a problem arises—be it avalanches or visa issues—they are often on the losing end.

“As Sherpas, we often do not get the credit for the job we do,” Pasdawa says. “We labor, but the clients get the spotlight. It’s hurtful. It would have been completely different if we had a chance to climb in Tibet this year.”

Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa’s inability to obtain travel visas to China had consequences for their careers. Both men said that completing the 14 peaks would have boosted their value as guides, and given them credibility to branch out into other types of work, like mountaineering education.

“I’ve had 37 successful summits of 8,000 meter peaks in my career. But that alone isn’t enough.” says Dawa Ongju. “I really really want to teach and train other climbers. But people won’t listen to me unless I have some sort of a record. That’s what upsets me.”

Many of the current generation of Nepal’s strongest high altitude workers grew up in the cash-strapped remote villages of eastern Nepal, with very few opportunities for education. Dawa Ongju left school to join the workforce after the third grade, Pasdawa after the fifth. Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju cite their lack of education as the reason they must work on the high peaks. Nepal’s flagging economy makes finding employment in other industries tricky, and relative to other jobs in Nepal, mountaineering pays well.

In recent years the wider world has slowly opened its eyes to the plight of Sherpa climbers on Mount Everest and other Himalayan mountains. A 2014 study done by ���ϳԹ��� found that Sherpa climbers face a workplace fatality rate of 4,053 deaths per 100,000 people—a rate ten times greater than the U.S. military’s fatality rate in the Iraq war.��Earlier this spring the , who has climbed Everest a record 28 times. Kami Rita told the��Times that he struggles to support his family of four in a rented Kathmandu apartment, and that he hopes his children pursue a profession away from the high peaks.

Both pay and recognition for Sherpas has been improving in the last few years. Nepalese climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja, who is not Sherpa, says he’s seen more acknowledgement of Sherpa climbers’ accomplishments within international mountaineering.

“The Nepalese community have always supported people to make their big mountain dreams a reality—from the Sherpas, guides and porters to tea house owners, base camp cooks and teams. Often their contribution has been overlooked. But I think there has been a shift recently in the way the Nepalese climbing community is being recognized for this work, which is really positive.”

Harila, for her part, thinks that climbers generally respect and appreciate their sherpas.

“Yeah, of course, climbers care most about saying I reached the summit. But I also understand that is because they have put so much into that,” Harila said. “And they have paid for the service that the fixing team does, the company does, and the sherpas do. So I think most of the time, I see that the climbers are really appreciating the sherpas.”

There’s also an uptick in Sherpa-owned expedition companies that now take paying customers��to the top of the highest peaks. But among the cadre of record-chasing celebrities in the tight-knit circle of climbers, few are Sherpa.

Part of this is due to the self-promotion skills and international relationships that record-chasing climbers must cultivate in order to fund their expeditions and navigate diplomatic hurdles. Both Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju cited their lack of English and personal marketing as the main factors that have held them back on the global mountaineering scene.

Some Sherpa climbers have tried to make names for themselves by pursuing speed records. In 2022, 31-year-old climber Gelje Sherpa raised funds via the crowdfunding site GoFundMe while attempting to become the youngest to scale the 14 peaks. Like Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju, Gelje was prevented from entering China to ascend Cho Oyu, and instead mounted an unsuccessful mission to ascend it from the Nepal side.

On April 26, Harila summited 26,335-foot Shishapangma alongside a Norwegian filmmaker and two guides: Tenjen Sherpa and Mingma Sherpa. Six days later, she topped out on Cho Oyu. By the end of May, she had climbed three other peaks.

Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju, meanwhile, were on the slopes of Everest, establishing camps and leading new clients on acclimatization rotations through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall. If successful, this trip will mark Dawa Ongju’s eighth trip to the summit and Pasdawa’s 11th.

Despite his frustration, Dawa Ongju said he wishes Harila good fortune. “From my side, she was my family. I still consider her family… I’ll be so happy if she succeeds,” he said.

When asked if he and Pasdawa could break the speed record on the 14 peaks if given access to Harila’s resources, his response, punctuated by the clamor of a noisy basecamp kitchen, came quickly:

“We’d be able to go twice as fast because we wouldn’t have to wait for the clients to catch up,” he said. “I’m entirely confident that we could break the record by at least a month.”

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At 9 A.M. on Saturday, October 1, a massive avalanche swept down the lower flanks of 26,781-foot Manaslu and enveloped dozens of tents in the mountain’s Base Camp. Video of the huge slide . As the snow clouds receded, the damage was visible: approximately 35 tents were buried or torn apart. But everyone in the camp was safe.

Later that morning, another avalanche occurred higher on the mountain, which killed Nepali guide Dawa Chhiring Sherpa, who had been descending from Camp 2 to Camp 1, which is located at 18,700 feet. Dawa had been working with the outfitter Seven Summit Treks, which quickly announced it was ending its expedition.

“Today we lost an honest and experienced guide, who summited Everest five times and multiple 8000ers. We decided to call off the expedition,” Tashi Lhakpa Sherpa, one of the founders of Seven Summit Treks, told ���ϳԹ���.

“This has been a terrible season,” Tashi Lhakpa Sherpa added. “The weather is not really predictable and there has been too much rain in the area.”

Similarly, guiding company Elite Exped, which is operated by famed Nepali climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja, also called off its mission to reach the top.

update: Following multiple big avalanches & the loss of our dear friends on the mountain, as well as the current & future weather conditions – we have taken the decision to call off this year’s expedition. Safety is our 1st��priority.

— Nirmal Purja MBE (@nimsdai)

“Following multiple big avalanches and the loss of our dear friends on the mountain, as well as the current and future weather conditions—we have taken the decision to call off this year’s expedition,” Purja wrote on Twitter. “Safety is our 1st priority.”

The decisions to abandon the peak follow a disastrous week on Manaslu. In six days, climbers witnessed three deaths and thirteen injuries, most of which were caused by avalanches. The slides are the product of an unusually snowy August and September on the mountain, which climbers typically ascend in the fall. The peak has historically been considered a practice mountain for alpinists hoping to ascend Mount Everest, K2, and other more technically challenging peaks above 8,000 meters. But this autumn, Manaslu has been one of the most dangerous mountains in the Himalayas.

“It was crystal clear that conditions are too dangerous, and that there will be more avalanches,” Lukas Furtenbach of German outfitter Furtenbach ���ϳԹ���s told ���ϳԹ���. “Operators with avalanche educated guides ended their expedition last week already because of safety concerns.”

Furtenbach ���ϳԹ���s abandoned its expedition after the events of Saturday, September 26. That morning, an avalanche at 24,000 feet enveloped a team of climbers, injuring more than a dozen and killing a Nepali guide named Anup Rai. Higher on the peak, ski mountaineering legend Hilaree Nelson, 49, died after falling just below the summit. Eyewitness reports said a small snow slide pushed Nelson off of the ridge where she was skiing, and caused her to plummet thousands of feet.

Rescuers found Nelson’s body on Wednesday, September 28.

Furtenbach ���ϳԹ���s was not the only outfitter��to concede after the deaths of Nelson and Rai. American guiding company Madison Mountaineering canceled its expedition on September 29, citing bad weather and continuous snowfall. “Due to the lingering monsoon and heavy precipitation in western Nepal, as well as the continuous snowfall and bad weather, the route conditions on Manaslu are unsafe for us to proceed,” the company wrote online.

Conditions are not expected to improve anytime soon on the mountain, and the upcoming weather forecast calls for rain at lower elevations and snow higher up. On Monday, website that the remaining guided expeditions on Manaslu were retreating from Base Camp to lower elevations.

The decision to leave the mountain marks a premature end to the busiest season ever on the Himalayan peak. More than 400 climbers obtained permits to ascend the peak, with many coming to reach the true summit. In years past, climbers turned around at a point that is anywhere from 20-25 feet lower than a point on a nearby ridge. For 2022, guides fixed ropes all the way to the highest point for the first time.

A handful of climbers reached Manaslu’s pinnacle in the days after guides completed fixing ropes to the top. Among the few to reach the top were Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila, who is hoping to break Nims Purja’s speed record on the 14 mountains above 8,000 meters.

British mountaineer Adriana Brownlee, 21,��who is trying to become the youngest climber to ascend all 14 peaks, also decided to cut her ascent short after the avalanche over the weekend. Brownlee was climbing with legendary guide Gelje Sherpa, who helped recover the body of Dawa over the weekend. In a post on social media, Brownlee called the events on Manaslu “unimaginable.”

Texting from Samagau, a village near Manaslu Base Camp, Gelje Sherpa lamented the loss of Dawa to ���ϳԹ���.

“We are deeply hurt due to series of disasters in which I lost my close friends,” he said. “So, we abandoned our expedition.”

Frederick Dreier contributed to this report.��

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On Wednesday, rescuers located the body of missing mountaineer Hilaree Nelson on the southern slope of 26,781-foot Manaslu, Nepal government officials confirmed.

“Rescuers retrieved her body from the south slope of the mountain,” said Sachindra Kumar Yadav, liaison officer at base camp. Nelson’s partner, Jim Morrison, was part of the rescue team that recovered her body.

Nelson, 49, was skiing down from the peak’s true summit with Morrison when she fell off the mountain a few meters below the top, according to her outfitter Shangri-La Nepal Treks. post, Morrison explained what happened:

“On September 26th at 10:42 A.M. we reached the true summit of Manaslu in tough conditions. We quickly transitioned from climbing to skiing in cold and wind with a plan to ski around the corner and regroup with our Sherpa team. I skied first and after a few turns Hilaree followed and started a small avalanche. She was swept off her feet and carried down a narrow snow slope down the south side (opposite from climbing route) of the mountain over 5,000 feet. I did everything I could to locate her but was unable to go down the face as I hoped to find her alive and live my life with her.”

Morrison returned to the mountain on Monday with a helicopter crew, but rescue operations were hampered by bad weather. The complex process for obtaining a flight permit in the Manaslu Conservation Area, where the incident took place, also delayed the operation.

On Tuesday, a helicopter search and rescue team spotted objects resembling skis and clothes, but could not confirm because poor weather prevented them from flying any closer. On Wednesday morning, Morrison and other search and rescue personnel returned to the scene and spotted Nelson’s remains around 9:30 A.M. local time, according to Jiban Ghimire, owner of Shangri-La Treks.

After finding the body, the helicopter dropped Morrison and another Nepali guide at around 21,325 feet, and the pair proceeded to free Nelson’s remains. “Jim told us that they literally dug up the body from the frozen ice,” said Sachindra. Her body was airlifted to Kathmandu for an autopsy.

“Today with the help of [Captain Surendra Patel] an incredibly skilled pilot we were able to land at 22,000 feet and search for her,” Morrison wrote. “[Nirmal Purja] was instrumental in helping organize the best team and resources possible and I found her body with the aid of Mingma Tenzi Sherpa��today at 10:30 am. I’m in Kathmandu with her and her spirit.”

“My loss is indescribable and I am focused on her children and their steps forward,” he wrote. “[Hilaree Nelson] is the most inspiring person in life and now her energy will guide our collective souls. Peace be with us all. Pray for her family and community which is broadly stretched across our planet. I’m devastated by the loss of her.”

Nelson was among the most accomplished ski mountaineers and alpinists on the planet. A champion extreme skier earlier in her career, she transitioned to ski mountaineering in the late 1990s and quickly became one of the . In 2002, she completed the first ski descent of five peaks in Mongolia’s Altai mountain range, and in 2005 she skied from the summit of 26,864-foot Cho Oyu without using supplemental oxygen. In 2012, Nelson became the first woman to link two 8,000-meter peaks—Mount Everest and Lhotse—in one 24-hour climb. She also was the first woman to ski the Makalu La Couloir on 27,825-foot Makalu.

Morrison and Nelson teamed up for one of her greatest achievements: in 2018 the two became the first to descend Lhotse on skis. The expedition earned Nelson a National Geographic�����ϳԹ���r of the Year award. That year she was named captain of The North Face’s Global Athlete Team.��Nelson lived in Telluride, Colorado, with her two sons.

She had traveled to Nepal with Morrison to notch a ski descent from Manaslu’s true summit—in previous years, most mountaineers turned around at a point that was anywhere from 20 to 25 feet shy of the highest point. The two were among 400 or so climbers to obtain permits to ascend the peak for the fall season—more than double the usual number for the mountain.

Heavy snowfall slowed summit attempts on Manaslu, and late last week climbers reported seeing multiple avalanches on the mountain. On Friday, Nelson wrote on Instagram about the challenging conditions on the mountain, and how they had impacted her progress. She and Morrison had turned back from the summit on Thursday.

“I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya,” she wrote. “The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it’s been constantly shrouded in mist.”

Nelson’s fall occurred shortly before another tragedy took place at lower elevations. A group of climbers ascending from Camp Four at approximately 24,000 feet was hit by an avalanche, and the slide trapped 14 of them in snow and ice. One climber, Nepali climbing guide, Anup Rai, died as a result of the slide. Website Everest Chronicle reported that Rai was working for outfitter Satori ���ϳԹ���s. On Monday and Tuesday, helicopter transport flew multiple injured climbers down to Base Camp from the slide.�� that all of the survivors of the avalanche had descended to lower elevations by Tuesday afternoon.

Abigail Barronian and Frederick Dreier contributed to this report.

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Climbers are flocking to Nepal’s 26,781-foot Manaslu this month, and government officials are anticipating noticeably bigger crowds than normal on the world’s eighth-highest peak.

By September 15, Nepal’s department of tourism had issued 394 climbing permits for Manaslu for the fall season, and officials told ���ϳԹ��� that they expected the number to surpass 400. A report from September 20 said the number had risen to 404. By contrast, only 193 climbers sought permits in 2021.

Guides and officials told�����ϳԹ��� that a variety of factors are contributing to the uptick in visitations—one is the end of a about the location of the mountain’s highest point. For several years, about whether the traditional turnaround point on Manaslu was the pinnacle, or whether its true summit was situated on a ridge line several meters away. Drone photos taken in 2021 show that the traditional turnaround point (labeled C2 in the photo below)—which for years has been marked with the traditional Nepali flag and Tibetan prayer flags—is anywhere from 20 to 25 feet lower than a point on a ridge line beyond. In some years, climbers also turned around at the spot labeled Shelf 2.

Some climbers and guides are adamant that they were unaware of a higher point, while researchers believe the mountaineering community has simply not wanted to venture past the “foresummit” due to the increased danger required to reach the highest point. Mountaineers must descend from a shelf on an exposed slope, traverse the peak, and then climb up to the ridge in order to reach the true top.

“We can clearly see a higher peak in every photo taken in the foresummit,” said Thaneswar Guragai, a climbing researcher. “It is not so hard to find.”

The debate appears to be over, and the mountaineering community now agrees climbers must reach the ridge point in order to complete the ascent. In 2021, mountaineer Mingma Gyalje Sherpa—known as Mingma G—of guiding company Imagine Nepal Treks, led a team to the true summit, and one of the members of the group, Jackson Grove, captured and then distributed the drone imagery, which clearly show a disparity in height between the two points. Afterward, the Himalayan Database, a Kathmandu-based group that charts mountaineering expeditions and is the de facto authority on summits, issued a statement confirming that Manaslu’s turnaround point was going to extend to the ridge.

“The Himalayan Database has decided that from 2022 it will only credit the summit to those who reach the highest point shown in the drone picture taken by Jackson Grove,” the statement said. “This change in summit accreditation is recommended and supported by foreign and Nepali operators who we have consulted in Kathmandu.”

With the new summit in place, some veteran climbers are venturing back to Manaslu to reach the high point, as a way to confirm their spot in mountaineering history. Among the 400 or so mountaineers on the peak are multiple climbers who have ascended the 14 peaks that stand above 8,000 meters.

“A number of 14 peak climbers have come to rescale the peak just to make sure they climb the true summit and maintain their 14 peak summiteer fame,” said Pemba Sherpa, founder of guiding company 8K Expedition. “This is going to be the busiest and most crowded season in Manaslu.”

Earlier this summer, German mountaineering researcher , who chronicles mountaineering feats on the site , said that the disputed summit on Manaslu meant that the list of climbers to ascend the 14 peaks was much smaller. According to Jurgalski, 53 climbers claim to have reached the summits of all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, but only three of them have reached the actual highest points on all the mountains.

Four of Nepal’s six climbers to ascend the 14 are slated to climb: Mingma Sherpa, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Nima Gyalzen Sherpa, and Sanu Sherpa. German climber Ralf Dujmovits, who had completed the 14 peaks in 2009, and Spaniard Jorge Egocheaga, who completed the 14 peaks in 2014, are also back.

Sanu Sherpa, who earlier this year finished his second ascent of all 14 peaks, says he never knew that his two previous ascents on Manaslu actually stopped short of the mountain’s top.

“I did not have any idea of real summit and fore summit until this year, when people started questioning my double ascent,” he said. “So, I want to re-climb the peak to reach its real summit.”

On Thursday, a Sherpa team from guiding company Elite Exped fixed ropes to Manaslu’s true highest point for the first time in history, which should make it easier for climbers to get there and back. The first ascent of Manaslu occurred in 1956—Japanese climbers Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu reached the foresummit—and 20 years later, a joint expedition from Iran and Japan climbed out to the high point. In its statement, the Himalayan Database said it would still honor climbers who reached the points marked Shelf 2, C2, and C3 in the Jackson Grove photo prior to 2022.

“As we cannot change history, we will make a note in the database that from 1956—when the summit was first reached by Toshio Imanishi, Gyaltsen Norbu Sherpa—to 2021, we accepted the three points mentioned above as the summit due to a lack of in-depth knowledge,” the organization said.

The Nepal government, which issues certificates for successful summits, has yet to make an official statement.

Guides and climbers told ���ϳԹ��� that other factors are contributing to the sizable crowds on the mountain. The ongoing closure of the Chinese border due to COVID-19 has kept climbers from accessing 26,864-foot Cho Oyu and 26,335-foot Shishapangma, which has steered more mountaineers hoping for a fall expedition to Manaslu.

“There is no other 8,000 peak to climb anywhere else this season,” says Bigyan Koirala with the Nepali department of tourism. “And a more obvious reason is that, the number of mountain climbers itself has increased globally and so climbers on all mountains, not just Manaslu, has increased.”

Manaslu is also one of the easier 8,000-meter peaks to climb. Mingma G says that climbers often start with Cho Oyu, which is the easiest of the 14 peaks, and then move on to Manaslu.

“We are getting Cho Oyu traffic this year,” he says. “Manaslu has almost 100 percent success rate, and so is also relatively easy to begin with.”

Rubbing shoulders with the new climbers will be a handful of mountaineers who are chasing records on the 14 peaks this year.��Taiwanese climber Grace Tseng and Japanese Naoko Watanabe, are also set to reclimb Manaslu to its true summit. Both mountaineers have already ascended 12 of the 14 peaks, including Manaslu. British climber Adriana Brownlee, who wants to become the youngest 14 peak climber, is��back in Manaslu to re-climb it. She had summited it last year.

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila who wants to set a record of fastest climb of 14 peaks above 8,000m is ascending the mountain as well. This will be her first climb of the mountain.

With so many mountaineers aiming for the summit, there is fear of crowding in the tighter areas of the route. Earlier this year, images of conga lines on K2 quickly spread around the globe.

Bigyan said that the Nepali tourism department cannot rule out crowding and traffic jams on the mountain due to the larger-than-normal collection of climbers. The new route to the summit may also create crowds. “The route to the true summit is said to be not wide enough for two way walk,” he said.

But Bigyan said the longer climbing window for Manaslu could thin crowds out.

Some guiding companies area already coming up with ways to beat the crowds. Mingma G told ���ϳԹ��� that he may take clients on an alternate route down the mountain, should the crowds get too big.

“We will use this alternate route if a crowd becomes likely,” he says. “So, I don’t think there will be a jam”

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The COVID outbreak at Everest Base Camp continues to cause chaos on the world’s highest peak. At least two expeditions have packed up their tents and abandoned their climbs, and China officially canceled the season on the Tibetan side of the mountain.��

The Khumbu��Valley is under lockdown orders. In the once-bustling airport town of Lukla, the local government opened an isolation center to accommodate the growing number of COVID patients descending from Base Camp in helicopters. “We currently accommodate 22 infected people, all of them coming down from trekking and Everest expeditions,” said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, an official for the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, which has jurisdiction over the valley.��

A medical professional at Base Camp who wished to remain anonymous said that a concerning number of asymptomatic cases have also been detected. Unfortunately, contact tracing has proven difficult. “We have referred positive cases to descend for a checkup and further testing,” the medical professional said.��“Close contacts are refusing to descend as it’s expensive and results take at least a week. I worry that if we tested everyone, the majority would come out positive.”

On May 10, Basque mountaineer Alex Txikon and his two climbing partners canceled their expedition due to concerns over what Txikon called a “complicated” health situation on the mountain. Today, Lukas Furtenbach, managing director of the Austrian outfitter Furtenbach ���ϳԹ���s,�� that “to climb [beyond] the base camp with these massively increasing corona numbers and risk the lives of our 20 customers, four mountain guides, and 27 Sherpas carelessly��would be irresponsible.” The statement also noted that ascending further would be “too dangerous because there is, of course, much less space in the high altitude camps.”

Despite the growing humanitarian crisis caused by rising COVID numbers that have now placed Nepal ahead of India in terms of and ��per capita, the government is determined to carry on with the season. Director General of the Department of Tourism, Rudra Singh Tamang, told ���ϳԹ���: “There are media reports about COVID cases at��Base Camp, which we don’t believe. We approve only official information, which either liaison officers and expedition team leaders provide. We have also not been informed about any company canceling the expedition.”��

A May 7 press release from the Department of Tourism said: “We would like to request that all concerned do not publish or circulate any information that would create fear amongst mountaineers and their families without coordinating with government agencies first. Only disseminate notices that have been verified by the official authorities.”��

A shipment of rapid COVID tests arrived in Lukla yesterday, and officials are meeting tomorrow to discuss whether or not they should implement widespread testing of expedition members and establish a second isolation center closer to Base Camp.��

Back in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, strict lockdown restrictions have been extended until the end of May. The airport remains closed to all commercial flights. Across the country, 40 percent of all COVID tests are positive. The Ministry of Health and Population has taken over the supply and distribution of medical oxygen, and put rationing measures in place. Despite setting up makeshift treatment centers in empty rooms, sidewalks, and verandas, hospitals still don’t have enough resources to treat all of their critical patients.��

To make matters worse on the world’s highest peak, a cyclone is percolating off the west coast of India that appears likely to send bad weather towards Everest’s crowded slopes. Despite everything, another batch of expedition workers and eager clients are busy preparing to leave Base Camp late tonight to make their way through the notoriously dangerous Khumbu Icefall towards Camp One and, eventually, the summit.��

“We know there is a risk of catching COVID on the mountain,” said local expedition leader Ang Tshiring Lama. “But if we don’t climb, our friends will die of hunger.”

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