Women’s Everest team navigate Khumbu Icefall for first time

By Ivy Ngiam

Mt. Everest, April 12, 2009 – The winds howled at 5am, the time we were supposed to wake up to get ready for our first practice climb on the Khumbu Icefall. Amidst the cold winds, we peeled ourselves out of our sleeping bags and strapped on our boots and backpacks. After a quick breakfast, we started out in the greyish darkness of dawn, towards the infamous Khumbu Icefall.

The Khumbu Icefall is the first section of the Everest climb, where large blocks of ice form an ever-moving glacier. This proves to be one of the trickiest bits of the climb before climbers even reach Camp 1 (6,100m). Before our summit bid, we would’ve climbed through the Khumbu Icefall at least five times for acclimatization purposes.

With the sun’s rays hidden, we moved in the cold of the dawn, feeling like tiny ants among these giant ice blocks. We chose to climb through the Icefall before the sun rose because the heat from the sun would cause the ice blocks to melt and shift, posing a potential hazard to our movements.

The route seemed never-ending. Every ice block we overcame led to another, and about an hour into the climb, we got to the fixed rope section where we clipped on our ascending devices and continued climbing. We navigated through horizontal and vertical ladders to cross crevasses, as well as front-pointed up certain sections with our crampons. After close to 3 hours, we reached our goal for the day, and decided to turn back towards Base Camp before the heat turned up.

We will be heading up towards Camp 1 when the Icefall is ready approximately a week from now. Currently, the Ice Doctors (local experts on the Icefall) are fixing the complete route up to Camp 1 and they’re in the midst of finding the safest way up. Meantime, we’ll be occupied with technical practices and acclimatization walks while we wait for the climb ahead.