The ice block, approximately 100 feet (30 meters) high, has been blocking the route from Base Camp since early April. Icefall doctors have found no way around it, and the only option is to wait for it to melt, according to Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) base camp coordinator. The delay means preparations are weeks behind schedule for the spring climbing season.
Icefall doctors reached Base Camp three weeks ago but remain stuck about 600 meters below Camp 1. Normally by this stage in April, they would have fixed the route as far as Camp 3. Officials are considering airlifting rope-fixing teams to Camp 2 by helicopter as a potential workaround, according to Ram Krishna Lamichhane, director general of Nepal's Department of Tourism. Sherpas hope rope-fixing work to Camp 2 will be completed within a few days after the ice melts.
We reached it on 10 April. The crevasse below is melting.
Purnima Shrestha, a prominent climber and photographer from Nepal, is currently acclimatizing to summit Everest for the sixth time. According to BBC News - World, Shrestha described the delays as adding concerns of possible traffic jams to the peak this year. Ang Sarki Sherpa, an icefall doctor, told BBC News - World that the serac's lower part was weak and expected it to melt; the crevasse below is already melting. The serac's condition is being monitored closely, but exactly when it will collapse remains unknown.
There is no choice. We spent four days touring the area, looking at every place from the mountain to the right and left.
We are thinking about airlifting the rope-fixing team and their logistics to Camp 2 by helicopter, so they can open the route above that altitude for now.
We will wait for the ice to melt at the place where there is an obstruction and work there when everything is safe.