Ice Doctors Arrive on Everest

The Ice Doctors, a group of Sherpas in charge of opening a route through Mount Everest’s Khumbu Icefall, have left for Everest Base Camp, the first sign of the start of the Everest climbing season. It's sort of the mountaineering equivalent of baseball's reporting of pitchers and catchers. 

The Ice Doctor's job, which they've done every spring since 1993, is to find a route through the maze of seracs and crevasses at the base of Khumbu Glacier, which runs from the Western Cwm at 20,000 feet to the base of the mountain at 17,000 feet. 

Of the 340 people who have died on Everest since 1953, 48 have died in the Icefall, most of them Sherpa climbers who were working on the mountain. In 2014 alone, an avalanche in the Icefall killed 16 workers.

As the Khumbu Glacier moves about a meter per day, the anchors on ropes and ladders that the Ice Doctors place weaken quickly. The route has to be constantly checked and maintained, so the Ice Doctors will remain on the mountain for the next three months of climbing season.  

The work of the Icefall Doctors is organized by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), which also checks climbing permits, monitors illegal climbing, and is in charge of waste management at the Everest base camps. The SPCC was formed by the local Sherpa community and operates as an NGO.