An active rescue is underway to locate five missing climbers after an avalanche struck a Himalayan base camp in northeastern Nepal on November 3. The slide is thought to have killed at least seven people in the 15-person expedition.

was the first to report this story.

Unstable snow and fluctuating weather conditions brought on by Cyclone Monica are believed to have caused the avalanche. Five visitors and ten Nepali high-altitude guides set out roughly an hour before the slide occurred at 8:30 A.M. near the base camp of Yalung Ri Peak.

The group had reached the base camp at an elevation of 16,000 feet and was adjusting to the altitude before attempting to summit Dolma Khang peak, which stands at nearly 21,000 feet. Yalung Peak is considered a non-technical beginner mountain, great for those with no previous experience in climbing high elevations.

Officials said that rescuers initially delayed rescue services due to weather conditions.

鈥淭he avalanche buried everyone on the slope. We got the information late, and the difficult weather delayed immediate response,鈥� Deputy Superintendent of Police, Gyan Kumar Mahato, told The Kathmandu Post. 鈥淎s soon as we were informed, we coordinated with the Home Ministry and deployed the Army, Armed Police Force, and Nepal Police from Lamabagar. But due to heavy snowfall and clouds, helicopters couldn鈥檛 be flown, and reaching the site on foot was extremely difficult.鈥�

Rescuers have since recovered two bodies and are searching for the remaining five, which are believed to be covered by snow. Eight others were saved and are receiving treatment in Kathmandu. The bodies of the other five deceased climbers “may be 10 to 15 feet below the snow,鈥� Mingma Sherpa, chairman of Seven Summit Treks, told the . 国产吃瓜黑料 contacted the summit company for an update, but has not heard back at the time of publishing.

Reports vary regarding the nationality of the climbers, who are said to include two or three Italians, two Nepalis, a German, a French person, and potentially a Canadian. NBC News that in an interview on November 3, Mahato had initially stated that three Americans had been killed, but the reason for the discrepancy is not apparent.

国产吃瓜黑料 also contacted the U.S. State Department for further information on whether any Americans were in the group, as well as the Nepal Government for an official count of victims. We will update this article if and when we receive a response.

In late October, heavy snowfall and rain from Cyclone Montha tore through the region, followed by sunnier weather on November 2. Officials speculate that this fluctuation in temperature, paired with heavy rainfall, steep slopes, and unstable snowpack, created prime conditions for an avalanche. It鈥檚 the same storm system that launched several rescue missions, including a helicopter that crashed while attempting to evacuate tourists.

Two other climbers were confirmed dead in a separate avalanche on Panbari Himal in the Manaslu region, reported听.

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A helicopter crashed while landing on a helipad in the settlement of Lobuche, near Everest Base Camp, amid a snowstorm on October 29. It was one of several that were evacuating foreign tourists from Nepal鈥檚 Khumbu region due to severe rain and snowstorms.

It鈥檚 the latest in a string of ongoing emergencies听atop the world鈥檚 tallest mountain.

Law enforcement officials stated that the helicopter lost traction while attempting to land at 7:43 A.M. local time, skidding in snowdrifts and overturning on the helipad. The only occupant at the time of the crash was the pilot鈥攊dentified by as Vivek Khadka鈥攚ho escaped unharmed.

A video of the crash was shared on by AccuWeather, a global weather company.

The crash occurred amid severe weather caused by Tropical Cyclone Montha, which made landfall on the southeastern coast of India on October 28, bringing heavy snowfall to the high-elevation regions around Mount Everest and severe rainfall to lower elevations. Meteorologists anticipate further severe rains and snow today and into the weekend. In response, officials on both the Nepalese and Chinese-Tibetan sides of Everest have closed their respective regions to tourists. They are also recommending that travelers postpone any plans to trek other high-elevation circuits, such as Manaslu, Annapurna, and Dhaulagiri.

Over the past few days, several high-profile evacuations have occurred in the Nepalese Himalaya as a result of the snowstorms. Over 1,500 people, including approximately 200 foreign tourists, were rescued from the area around a high-elevation lake on Wednesday. Yesterday, a group of 72 trekkers was from Annapurna Base Camp.

The difficulty of these operations was highlighted again on October 31, when a trio of British and Irish tourists, along with a dozen Nepalese porters and guides, were rescued from Nepal鈥檚 Hidden Valley after spending three days stranded in subfreezing temperatures. Helicopters were unable to fly due to the weather conditions, so a rescue team had to trek in to evacuate them on foot.

鈥淭hey were barely able to walk, but were really happy when they saw us,鈥� Nepalese army officer Gaurab Dhoj Khand Thakuri said to . Nepalese officials told the outlet that 鈥渁valanches, landslides and road blockages could continue to affect the area until at least Saturday.鈥�

These latest storms are the second bout of heavy snowfall to hit the Everest area this month. Hundreds were rescued from around Everest in early October after another powerful storm dumped several feet of snow across the region.

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Just before noon on July 20, 2025, an Italian mountaineer named Marco Confortola trudged to the summit of 26,509-foot Gasherbrum I in Pakistan. Confortola snapped photos of himself to commemorate the moment: in ascending the peak, he claimed to have climbed all 14 of the world鈥檚 mountains above 8,000 meters.

Or had he?

In the following weeks, two Italian mountaineers named Simone Moro and Silvio Mondinelli called Confortola鈥檚 achievement into question. They contacted the Italian Alpine Club鈥檚 journal, , to dispute the claim, alleging that Confortola had failed to actually reach the summit on some of the 14 peaks. Confortola hit back at them in an interview published by . A lengthy online fracas ensued.

“I went to the summit, and then people can say what they want,” Confortola told听Lo Scarpone. (Confortola did not respond to requests for an interview with 国产吃瓜黑料.)

Why did these mountaineers dispute Confortola? The heroic photos he uploaded to social media from the summits, they said, appeared to be manipulated versions of images taken by other climbers. In the Lo Scarpone article, Moro and Mondinelli included screengrabs of Confortola’s photographs, as well as photos from other climbers, to show the similarities.

Confortola鈥檚 photo from atop 28,169-foot Kanchenjunga, they pointed out, looked like a cropped version of an identical photograph taken by a different climber, Pakistan鈥檚 Shehroze Kashif. Confortola鈥檚 photo on 27,825-foot Makalu looked eerily similar to one taken by his countryman, Marco Camandona. In an interview with the Italian climbing website , Comandona accused Confortola of stealing his photo. A summit selfie Confortola posted from 27,940-foot Lhotse is also nearly identical to that of Spanish climber Jorge Egocheaga.

“If someone took a summit photo in the same way, does it necessarily have to be a stolen photo?” Confortola told听Lo Scarpone.

The accusations of the false summits鈥攁nd the photographs that were called into question鈥攇enerated a small tonnage of media intrigue. Stories about the accusations appeared in UK newspapers and , German newspaper and Spanish news outlet , and on multiple mountaineering websites. Other than a La Stampa, Confortola did not provide comment to any of the outlets.

“I’m being smeared with mud and accusations,” he told the newspaper.

But a growing chorus of mountaineers did comment to outlets, including Italian great Reinhold Messner. The 81-year-old Italian said that he, too, doubted that Confortola actually climbed some of the peaks.

鈥淚f someone claims to have reached the summit of an eight-thousander, he has the duty to show proof,鈥� Messner told the Italian daily newspaper . 鈥淚f this is missing, the alleged ascent remains a personal matter: for the history of mountaineering, it does not exist.鈥�

A Long History of Fake Summit Photos

Confortola is not the first climber to have his accolades called into question due to photography. Accusations of false achievements on high mountains have existed for more than a century, and in almost every case, photographs have played an instrumental role in confirming or debunking the achievement.

In 1906, American explorer Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent of 20,310-foot Denali, but his achievement was later debunked as a fake, and his supposed summit photo revealed to have been taken on a different mountain. Today, that mountain is affectionately known as Fake Peak. Italian alpinist Cesare Maestri claimed a first ascent of Argentina鈥檚 10,262-foot Cerro Torre in 1959. But today, his achievement to have been faked.

Austrian alpinist Christian Stangerl admitted to fabricating an ascent of 28,2510-foot K2 in 2010. The late Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck of faked ascents. In 2016, two different pairs of Indian mountaineers to claim Mount Everest summit certificates.

One of the strangest fake summit attempts I鈥檝e ever seen occurred in 2023, when an anonymous Reddit user posted on the that he and two partners had summited 24,452-foot Muchu Chhish, a peak in remote Pakistan. This was a big deal, because Chhish, at the time, was the highest unclimbed mountain in the world.

The post elicited a lot of buzz鈥攊t became r/Mountaineering鈥檚 most-upvoted post of all time. But within the professional climbing community, there was a strong feeling of skepticism. The photos the individual posted did not appear to be from the summit of a mountain as high as Muchu Chhish.

I communicated briefly with the author of the Reddit post. He refused to connect on a phone interview, or to provide GPS evidence of his ascent. He later deleted the photographs from Reddit and vanished. 鈥淚t was so obviously fake that we didn鈥檛 spend much time on it,鈥� Dougald MacDonald, executive editor of the American Alpine Journal, told me at the time. 鈥淵ou have to wonder: Why?鈥�

Do Experts Think The Photos Are Fake?

I showed Confortola鈥檚 disputed summit photo from the summit of Lhotse to Connor Plunkett and Galen Reich, two researchers at the open-sourced intelligence group . I asked them if they believed the image was real or fake. They told me that specific details in the photo led them to believe they had undergone some level of manipulation.

鈥淚 try to be careful when making claims,鈥� Plunkett said. 鈥淏ut the evidence strongly suggests that there’s been some editing here.鈥�

When accused of faking the Lhotose photo, Confortola听told Lo Scarpone, “That’s another lie. I took the photo.”

Plunkett said that Confortola’s听photo appears to have been manipulated through a digital editing technique known as cloning. This entails copying and pasting certain sections of a photograph, or groups of pixels, from one region of a photo to another.

鈥淭here is obvious cloning going on in the background of this image,鈥� Plunkett explained.

The image, a selfie, appears to show Confortola crouching in front of the Lhotse summit, with wind-swept snow spray billowing off the top. The angle of the photo, and Confortola鈥檚 placement in it, is almost identical to the one that Egocheaga took and put online in 2013, the same year when Confortola听allegedly climbed the peak.

Plunkett and Reich pointed out that some sections of the billowing snow鈥攚hich isn’t present in Egocheaga鈥檚 image鈥攁re identical, such as a cluster of snow spray immediately to the right of Confortola鈥檚 helmet and a cluster near the top of the photo, directly above the apex of the summit. The identical pattern of snow suggests that the snowflakes were added to the photo with editing software.

But both Reich and Plunkett told me that there is no way to prove with 100-percent certainty that an image is fake. Researchers must rely on their own eyes, and on a growing collection of online tools.

鈥淵ou don’t need to be a forensic image expert to be able to tell that something has been manipulated,鈥� Plunkett said.

How the Professionals Look for Photo Manipulation

Plunkett and Reich told me that they rely on a collection of free online tools to help them determine whether or not a photograph is legitimate.

Plunkett and Reich recommend starting with an image鈥檚 EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, which is embedded in digital photos. This information often includes the date and time a photo was taken, and may also contain the latitude, longitude, and even elevation. Users can use online tools like and to find the metadata in a given photo, although this tactic is a long shot, as social media platforms typically wipe metadata when files are uploaded. Even taking a simple screenshot will result in an identical photo without all of the original metadata.

If that doesn鈥檛 work, Reich and Plunkett said to try reverse-image searching portions of an image, such as for the bits of snow spray. For mountaineering photos in particular, they recommend cropping out the entire foreground鈥攚hich often includes the triumphant climber鈥� and reverse-image searching the background. Google is a good start, but they also recommend the Russian search engine to access a wider net of photos.

They also advise using an augmented reality tool like to analyze the peaks that would be visible in the background of a purported summit photo. The damning element of the alleged Muchu Chhish summit photographs is that no tall peaks appear in the background, yet the mountain is ringed by other high points.

鈥淭he accuracy of their terrain data is much better than Google Earth,鈥� Reich said.

Reich said the easiest way to spot whether a summit photograph has been stolen from a different climber is to use a publicly accessible tool called Forensically, which has a clone-detection feature.

I used a different tool, called MaxAI, to layer the Lhotse images of Egocheaga and Confortola on top of each other. I noticed that every ridge of snow in the two photos is exactly the same.

A Need for New Ways to Verify Summits

Rodolphe Popier, a veteran alpine chronicler and record-keeper for mountaineering archival sites 8,000ers.com and , told me that he has held suspicion of Confortola鈥檚 climbing achievements for years.

Popier, who was among the first to raise serious questions about , said that the problem of false summit photographs stems from mountaineering鈥檚 lack of an official institution to verify ascents.

鈥淭here is no court of law to judge mountaineering,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he only court is public opinion. Today, that public opinion is represented by social media, which is very quick to react, but is not always a good judge.鈥�

Indeed, climbers make news of their ascents by publishing summit photos on Instagram or Facebook so that their followers and sponsors can see. But it’s easy to copy or download these images from the Internet.

These days, hundreds of climbers often summit Mount Everest during the same week amid the spring climbing season. Some of these climbers have sponsorship dollars and other incentives at stake in reaching the top.

Amid the influx of people on the world鈥檚 highest mountains, Popier believes climbers should meet a minimum standard of proof when they claim a successful ascent. He points to GPS tracking files, summit photographs showing clearly recognizable geographic features, as two ways to verify a climb.

That’s an argument that even Confortola may agree with. In his short interview with Lo Scarpone,听he advised other mountaineers to do everything they can to make sure their climbs are able to be verified.

“At this point, I’d advise all climbers to always carry a satellite tracker, to avoid all this pointless controversy,” he said.

In lieu of presenting hard proof of a successful climb, Popier said mountaineers should expect their accolades to be doubted.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very simple,鈥� said Popier. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to claim something publicly, be prepared to prove it. If you have no proof, don’t be surprised when you are criticized.鈥�

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American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison made history earlier this month when he became the first person to drop into a harrowing ski descent of the Hornbein Couloir, an infamously steep, narrow chute on Mount Everest, via the Super Direct route. Now, the first footage of the 50-year-old鈥檚 novel attempt has been released.

After five years of logistical听planning and three expedition attempts, National Geographic described in a press release the 9,000-foot vertical line descent from Everest’s summit as representing 鈥渢he most significant achievement in ski mountaineering history.鈥� Morrison can be seen as he jump-turns down the steep, rocky terrain. His entire ski line is considered a no-fall zone鈥攕kiing鈥檚 equivalent of free soloing鈥攚here one mistake or slip can result in an uncontrolled fall and certain death.

The video, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films鈥� 鈥淓verest North,鈥� shows Morrison ascending, summiting, and making history as he descends the most challenging route on the biggest face of the tallest mountain in the world. Long coveted by elite skiers, the route is a notoriously dangerous, technically challenging line with a climb that begins at 20,000 feet and ends at 29,032 feet. Anything over 26,000 feet is considered the 鈥淒eath Zone鈥� in mountaineering because of the low levels of atmospheric oxygen.

鈥淪urviving in this zone is extremely difficult, with climbers typically recommended to spend no more than 16 to 20 hours there due to severe physical deterioration, impaired cognitive function, and increased risks of stroke, edema, and heart failure,鈥� writes National Geographic in a statement sent to 国产吃瓜黑料.

Morrison鈥檚 descent wasn鈥檛 just to achieve a world first, either. He was also there to say a final goodbye to his late partner, Hilaree Nelson, the famed ski mountaineer who died on Mount Manaslu in 2022. Atop the highest mountain in the world, Morrison spread her ashes, then fastened on his skis.

Skiing the Hornbein wasn鈥檛 the only record-setting that took place during the 2025 expedition. Only five other climbers had completed the route Morrison followed on the ascent, the Super Direct, the last of which was made in 1991. Certain points of the climb are completely vertical.

Morrison was joined by 11 other climbers, including Jimmy Chin and Erich Roepke.

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We’re living in a gilded age of adventure filmmaking.

That was the title of a feature story I edited for 国产吃瓜黑料 Magazine a few years ago. The writer, Nick Heil, surmised that the outdoor industry’s best filmmakers had finally mastered the technology and techniques to produce truly meaningful documentaries鈥攜ou know, the kind that win Academy Awards.

Filmmakers such as Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Max Lowe, Nick Rosen, and others had achieved such a high level, Heil wrote, by focusing on the blocking and tackling of visual storytelling: character development, narrative arc, and yeah, making peaks and waterfalls and canyons look really cool.

I thought about Heil’s conclusion as I watched the new climbing film K2鈥擟hasing Shadows, which I viewed at The North Face’s Denver, Colorado headquarters in September. My take: It’s not just the filmmakers who have become experts at this stuff. Athletes have, too.

Directed by French filmmakers David Arnaud and Hugo Clouzeau, K2鈥擟hasing Shadows follows the exploits of French alpinist Benjamin Vedrines as he attempts听to set a speed record for ascending the world’s second-highest peak without supplemental oxygen in 2024. The record that Vedrines is chasing is mostly irrelevant to the narrative arc of K2鈥擟hasing Shadows.听

Instead, the film focuses on the internal demons Vedrines faces on the slopes of K2, perhaps the deadliest peak above 8,000 meters.听Back in 2022, when he was the sport’s rising star,听Vedrines nearly died after passing out just below the K2 summit. Luckily, other climbers found him unconscious听and brought him to lower elevations, where he made a full recovery.

Throughout听K2鈥擟hasing Shadows,听Vedrines provides a running dialogue of the innermost thoughts and emotions of returning to the place where he brushed death. He unpacks these feelings鈥攖error, excitement, triumph, embarrassment鈥攊n real-time into GoPro cameras mounted to his climbing poles and helmet. It’s as though he’s seated in a psychotherapist’s chair鈥攐ne that happens to be placed on the vertical slopes of K2.

Vedrines cries. He laughs. He works things out in real-time. Is it the thin air that makes Vedrines open up? Who knows. But by making his internal dialogue accessible, Vedrines crafts a story that would make Chin or Lowe or any of the other previously mentioned documentarians proud.

“My first goal was to be transparent and to just be myself with this movie, and to show another aspect of what some athletes live through,” Vedrines recently told听国产吃瓜黑料.听“Sometimes, we experience a situation where you have pushed too much and gone too high and touched the limit, and this creates a lot of existential thought and big questions in your own mind.”

No, Vedrines does not own an advanced degree in filmmaking or literature. But he seems to have a preternatural ability to understand what the audience cares about.

“In the end, struggling with your own thoughts and your own personality can be a super powerful story,” he added.

Of course, a therapy session at 28,000 feet is boring if you can’t also view the peak in all of its terrifying splendor. And luckily, Vedrines is also a skilled visual storyteller. Yes, Clouzeau and Arnaud and the filmmaking crew deserve accolades for bringing the majesty and horror of K2 to life on the screen. But Vedrines deserves ample applause as well, because he shoots much of the footage himself.

The filming technique in K2鈥擟hasing Shadows听brings bring’s K2’s steepness to life in a way听I have not seen in other films about the mountain. The method Vedrines and the team used is not entirely groundbreaking鈥攖hey mounted a GoPro to his climbing helmet and pointed it downward.

But the perspective, when seen on a big screen, provides a dizzying view of the exposure climbers face on the peak. Suddenly, K2’s verticality becomes oh-so apparent. Vedrines looks down between his feet and sees the rock wall go down for thousands of feet. One wrong foothold, one bobble, one slip, and he is destined to fall for a while.

There’s another jaw-dropping visual element of K2鈥擟hasing Shadows听that’s tied to Vedrines and his climbing technique. In recent years, he’s made headlines for ascending high peaks without oxygen and then soaring off the summit with a paragliding setup.

We get to see what this looks like in K2鈥擟hasing Shadows, and let me tell you, it’s an edge-of-your-seat experience. Vedrines makes several flights from the flanks of K2, including a harrowing one into a blinding blizzard. For each one, he films via his GoPro, and also from a drone flying next to him.

This footage is the best part of the entire film. You have no idea if Vedrines will sail safely out of the other side of the clouds, or fly smack-dab into a vertical rock wall.

K2鈥擟hasing Shadows听makes its international debut in November at France’s Montagne en Scene film festival. If you have the opportunity to watch it, I absolutely recommend you do.

I caught up with Vedrines recently to ask him about the film.

OUTSIDE: What technology and techniques did you use to bring K2 to life?

Benjamin Vedrines:听I had a nice team of two cameraman, Seb Montaz-Rossetand Thibaut Marot, as well as the guys at base camp, and they were there to capture nice moments. Seb is very experienced in high-altitude filming, and this is why he was the guy with me doing the summit push. We also had very nice footage from the drones. You don’t have all of this level of footage the higher I went, because I was using my GoPro on my head, and one at my side. It is important for me to capture personal moments in these ascents. But filming this way is very difficult because you have to be focused on the climb, and also be focused on filming what is going on. I’ve done several expeditions on routes in the Alps where I’ve had to do this, and it has become a new passion of mine. Over the years, I have improved.

How do you balance the need to focus on climbing and staying safe on the mountain with capturing the moment for the film?

My cameramen have told me that I have a good eye for capturing important moments. My intuition is that when the climb becomes hard, that is the interesting part that people want to see. For example, I made an effort to capture the moment during the storm on K2 because I was alone, and it is a very deep moment. Yes, there are moments when I need to focus on saving my life and trying to stay alive. There are other moments where it is merely uncomfortable, so I can afford to capture it with a camera. I know those moments will be powerful and real.

Why is it so important for you to share the emotions you feel on the edge of a mountain?

It’s important to make the audience try and understand what I do. Otherwise, you don’t really have any story. The real emotions that alpinists like me are experiencing on a mountain can only be captured on our own, by ourselves. In many situations, I am the only one with the camera, and I am saying things that come from deep inside of me. I can’t worry that ‘oh, people will judge me.’ I have a feeling when I am alone that I can say anything. So, what I say is what I think.

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Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the 1953 expedition to reach the top of Mount Everest, died on Thursday, October 16.

Kanchha Sherpa was 92.

国产吃瓜黑料 interviewed Kanchha Sherpa’s son, Tshering Penjo Sherpa, who told anecdotes of his father’s connection the Mount Everest region, prior to its transformation by international tourism.

Tshering Penjo also shared details from the historic 1953 expedition to the summit of Mount Everest鈥攁nd the pivotal job that Kanncha Sherpa played in helping Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa reach the top.

Kanccha died at the house of his son, Tshering Penjo Sherpa, on the outskirts of Kathmandu. He had recently been brought to Nepal鈥檚 capital city from his ancestral home village of Namche Bazaar, the gateway to Everest, to undergo treatment for stomach cancer. He was receiving treatment for the disease at a nearby hospital, Tshering Penjo Sherpa told 国产吃瓜黑料.

Mount Everest Before the Tourists

Born in a poor Sherpa family in Namche, Kanchha never attended school.

When he was a child, Namche village wasn鈥檛 connected to the outside world by roads or mass communication. The village had no school and no health facilities, and the tourism industry had yet to transform the region.

Kanccha remained illiterate throughout his life. His only writing was his own signature in English, which was taught to him by his mentor, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.

With little available work opportunities in Namche, Kanchha, as a teenager, he traveled great distances by foot to build personal friendships and business opportunities outside of the community. He frequently trekked to Tibet, crossing high mountain passes, to trade sheep wool and salt in exchange for the corn and millet that his family grew in their home village. He sold the goods to help feed his family. Kanccha also trekked down to Nepal’s southern border with India to trade for rice.

鈥淗is lifestyle was difficult. We have had to wait for a festival to get rice. Had to rely on shamans if someone in our family got sick,鈥� his son Tshering Penjo Sherpa told听国产吃瓜黑料.听

In 1952, when he was 20 years old, Kanchha left Namche and walked for four days to reach Darjeeling, India, in search of a job. At the time, the Indian city was a hotbed for mountaineering expeditions into the Himalayas. Trips were organized by other Sherpas who were already living there.

Through a friend of his father, Kanchha met Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, and he worked at Tenzing Norgay’s house for three months. The job helped him form a bond with the Sherpa mountaineer, and Tenzing Norgay eventually invited Kanccha to participate in the groundbreaking 1953 trip to climb the world鈥檚 highest peak.

An Elite Sherpa on Everest

Alongside eight other Sherpas, Kanccha and Tenzing Norgay returned to Nepal by train鈥攖hey later walked from Kathmandu back to Namche alongside Hillary. Upon arriving in Namche, the expedition used 60 yaks and 400 porters to ferry gear to the base of the mountain.

The team set up camps along the 30-mile route, which has since become a popular destination for trekkers. But in 1953, the trail was virtually empty.

鈥淲e have had to establish six camps from Namche to reach Base Camp,鈥� Kanchha told the Annapurna Post, a Nepali language daily newspaper, in January 2022, 鈥淣o one was really aware of establishing camps on the way to Base Camp.鈥�

When they arrived at the present-day Mount Everest Base Camp, the area was covered in knee-high snowfall. The team then had to find a way to navigate the dangerous Khumbu Icefall.

鈥淎luminum ladders were not invented during their expedition days. So, my dad and other Sherpas chopped three pine trees in Namche and ferried wooden logs to the base camp to fix them over glaciers,鈥� said Tshering Penjo, 鈥淭hat eased the load ferrying over Khumbu glacier.鈥�

Out of 35 core members of the expedition team, 20 Sherpas were assigned to venture above Base Camp. Of them, just three Sherpas were assigned to climb to the highest camp at 27,000 feet, carrying oxygen loads and other essentials. Kanchha was one among the three.

Sherpas worked in rotations, continuing to haul gear upward until they fixed a tent at the final camp. Kanchha鈥檚 primary responsibility was to carry kerosene and stoves for cooking. For climbers, Champa, a porridge made of barley, was the main dish.

Shortly after Kanccha made his final trip to and from the high camp, Norgay and Hillary made their successful push for the summit, reaching the top on May 29, 1953.

鈥淭hey stayed at the tent that we had set up. We stayed at the lower camp The next day at 1 P.M., they successfully reached the summit,鈥� Tshering Penjo said, relaying his father’s story of the climb. 鈥淭hey succeeded in 45 days since the expedition began.鈥�

Kanchha鈥檚 daily salary during the historic Everest expedition was 8 Nepalese Rupees, or about $1.30 in 1952. He was also given crampons, climbing equipment, and sleeping bags. In recognition of his contribution to climbing, Kanchha was awarded medals by British Queen Elizabeth II and the Government of Nepal.

鈥淓xcept for two medals鈥搊ne given by Queen Elizabeth II and another one by the government of Nepal he sold all of his climbing essentials,鈥� said Tshering Penjo, 鈥淗e did that to feed us and settle daily expenses.鈥�

A Career in Expeditions and Trekking

After the 1953 expedition, Kanchha continued working at high altitude on听other trips. But he never reached the summit of an 8,000-meter peak.

鈥淗e was always stuck below the summit,鈥� said Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, the umbrella body of Nepali mountaineers. 鈥淚n early climbing days, it was difficult to obtain climbing permits, especially for Sherpas. That鈥檚 for not having enough royalty to pay to the government.鈥�

The dynamic confined many elite Sherpas to working as porters, kitchen boys and high-altitude helpers.

The successful ascent in 1953 lured additional foreign climbers to the Mount Everest region. Highly skilled Sherpas helped many of them to reach the summit. These expeditions, however, claimed the lives of many other Sherpas, and their deaths in avalanches and falls cast a shadow on the budding industry.

鈥淒on鈥檛 go to Everest, it鈥檚 too risky,” Kanccha’s wife, Ang Lakpa Sherpa, famously warned him. “Children are too small. What happens if you die there?鈥�

Kanccha continued to work as a high-altitude helper, but in the second half of his career he became a trekking guide. For 28 years he brought foreign tourists on long hikes to some of the most scenic regions of the Himalayas: Everest, Mustang, Kanchenjunga and Annapurna, among others.

In his final years, Kanccha mostly stayed in Namche, praying three to four times a day in the local monasteries. In 2018, he established a foundation dedicated to preserving traditional Sherpa culture.

The Kanchha Sherpa Foundation issued tickets for both domestic and foreigner visitors if they wanted to meet and interact with him. The voluntary donation collected from visitors in the name of the foundation s supporting the improvement of health and education of the Namche area. The fund was also used to protect听Sherpa culture and music.

Kanccha steered his two sons away from the mountaineering industry, instead pushing them to operate hotels in the Mount Everest region, where they also help run schools and social programs.

鈥淗aving faced several difficulties in the mountains, he never encouraged us to work as climbing guides. We also didn鈥檛 choose climbing as our profession,鈥� said Lakpa Tenzing, one of Kanchha’s sons.

Worried by the over-commercialization of Mount Everest, Kanchha often expressed frustration over the crowds, parties, and extravagant accoutrements at Base Camp.

鈥淓verest must get rest,鈥� he often told his family.

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On October 15, American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison stood atop Mount Everest. The 50-year-old wasn’t just on the highest point on Earth to enjoy the view; he was there to say a final goodbye, and to make history. Morrison carried the ashes of his late partner, Hilaree Nelson, the famed ski mountaineer who died on Mount Manaslu in 2022.

Morrison spread Nelson鈥檚 ashes on Everest鈥檚 summit. Then, he fastened a pair of skis and dropped into a harrowing ski descent of the Hornbein Couloir, an infamously steep, narrow chute. When connected to the Japanese Couloir below, it forms a line that plummets nearly 12,000 vertical feet. Morrison previously called the route “the greatest line never skied,” and now, his effort is perhaps the most impressive ski descent of all time.

鈥淚 had a little conversation with [Nelson] and felt like I could dedicate the whole day to her,鈥� Morrison told . Nelson, one of the world鈥檚 leading ski mountaineers, had been killed by an avalanche while the duo were attempting to descend Manaslu.

Located on Mount Everest’s听North Face, the Hornbein has captivated mountaineers since Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld made its first ascent in 1963. Morrison鈥檚 party was only the sixth to ascend the route, and the first since 1991.

Skiing from Everest is far from a new endeavor: Japan鈥檚 Y奴ichir艒 Miura succeeded in descending much of the peak on skis back in 1970. A documentary about the feat, , became the first athletic film to win an Academy Award. Last month, Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel skied from the summit down to Everest Base Camp, via the standard Southeast Ridge Route, without supplemental oxygen.

But a ski descent of the Hornbein is another beast entirely. No route is as dizzyingly steep, and the world鈥檚 best have eyed it for decades. As 国产吃瓜黑料 reported in 2024, the Hornbein is 鈥渁 1,500-vertical-foot gully whose maw opens just 1,000 feet below the peak鈥檚 summit, and then spills mercilessly onto the 5,500-foot slope beneath. The narrow gully teeters between 45 and 60 degrees in steepness, bends gently in the middle, and then narrows to about the width of a standing human body.鈥�

 

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If you want to get off the top of Mount Everest as quickly as possible鈥�save for strapping on a wingsuit and leaping off鈥攖he Hornbein is the way.

鈥淭he conditions were abominable,鈥� Morrison told National Geographic. 鈥淚t was a mix of survival skiing and actual shredding. Some sections were smooth enough for real turns. Others were rutted and raised four feet up and down, like frozen waves.鈥�

As he made his way through the technical sections of the couloir high on the mountain, including a 650-foot stretch of bare rock that required a rappel, conditions began to improve and the skiing got easier. But that just left Morrison feeling bittersweet.

鈥淚 kept thinking, I鈥檓 never coming back here,鈥� Morrison said. 鈥淚 should get a few more turns in while I can.鈥�

For Morrison, the descent seemed to be an exercise in letting go, both of his late partner鈥檚 ashes and the shared dream they had of skiing the Hornbein together one day.

鈥淲hen I finally crossed the bergschrund, I cried,鈥� he added. 鈥淚鈥檇 risked so much, but I was alive. It felt like a tribute to Hilaree鈥攕omething she鈥檇 be proud of. I really felt her with me, cheering me on.鈥�

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Maybe you saw , or your uncle Ron sent you one of the . I’m willing to bet that, at some point in the last few days, you learned that several on or near Mount Everest by a massive snowstorm that struck China and Nepal.

, reads the People Magazine story.听听reads another.

Perhaps you, like me, stared at these headlines and鈥攔eferencing your knowledge of the world’s highest peak鈥攃ame up with some basic follow-up questions: One thousand people were on Mount Everest? In October? WTF?

It’s no secret that mainstream news outlets can sometimes distort or exaggerate the activities that happen on the world’s highest mountains. Thus, I’ve put together a short explainer to help you and Uncle Ron understand this latest Mount Everest drama.

What actually happened with the Everest snowstorm?

On Friday, October 3, a giant storm blew across the Himalayas and dropped feet of snow. In the autonomous region of China known as Tibet, the storm blanketed Mount Everest as well as the mountainous and hilly terrain surrounding it.

Alas, hundreds of day hikers, campers, people on week-long guided backpacking trips, and yak herders were in this region at the time. The snow jammed up roads and trails, and stranded nearly 1,000 of them in the backcountry. Temperatures plummeted to below freezing.

鈥淚t was raining and snowing every day, and we did not see Everest at all,鈥� .

Yeah, things got scary, and the Chinese government, local firefighters, and even everyday citizens had to work long hours to get them to safety. A few trekkers reportedly suffered from hypothermia. Hundreds were eventually evacuated to nearby towns, including the tiny village of Qutang.

But in the end, everyone on the Tibet side was saved!

Wait, so none of these people were climbing Mount Everest?

No.

But they were Mount Everest climbers, right?

Nope. They were hikers, with zero intention of ascending the actual Mount Everest.

But were they听on Mount Everest?

I suppose it depends on your definition of “on” a mountain. If you define it as I do鈥攂eing located between the base of the mountain’s prominence and the summit鈥攖hen no, they were not.

Well, where the heck were they?

They were in campsites and at trailheads in the foothills and valleys near Mount Everest. One area where 350 or so people were trapped is called the Karma Valley, which apparently has fabulous views of Mount Everest’s Kangshung Face. The valley is pretty high鈥攊t’s at about 13,800 feet鈥攂ut of course this is far lower than Mount Everest Base Camp.

Were these people intending to climb Mount Everest?

Sigh, no. Nobody has climbed the Kangshung Face in decades. It’s a sheer wall of rock, and only the best alpinists would even attempt it.

Were they close enough to, like, hit Mount Everest with a rock?

No dude, they were pretty far away from Mount Everest.

Well, what the heck were they doing there?

It turns out lots of people around the world love to go hiking and camping in pristine, mountainous backcountry.

Unfortunately, the storm hit during China’s Golden Week holiday, during which everybody in the entire country gets eight days off of work to celebrate National Day,听the official recognition of Mao Zedong proclaiming the People’s Republic of China way back in 1949.

Golden Week is a massive period of travel for the Chinese, and they descend on popular tourism destinations like Macau, Shanghai Disneyland, and yes, Tibet. Thousands of tourists venture into the backcountry to enjoy the fresh air, hike along trails, and snap photos of the world’s highest peak.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to go camping near Mount Everest? The Karma Valley is one of several stunning areas that are popular destinations for hikers. Here’s how describes it: “It is like magic鈥攊t will simply keep your eye and mouth open and wonder about the beauty.” I honestly want to book a trip there right this minute.

But, like, one guy died, right?

That’s correct.

Was听he听on Mount Everest?

according to multiple media reports, a South Korean climber named Tejung Park, 46, was climbing 21,247-foot Mera Peak in Nepal when the blizzard hit. He went missing and was later found several days later dead near the peak’s summit.

What’s up with Mera Peak?

It’s classified as a “” by the , meaning you can reach the top by hiking. You don’t need to do any technical mountaineering, and the elevation is low enough to reach the top without bottled oxygen.

Is that near Mount Everest?

I mean, it’s closer to Mount Everest than Cincinnati. But it’s still a few days walk from Mera to reach Mount Everest Base Camp. Sometimes people will zip between the two mountains in a helicopter. It’s pretty far from the area where the 350 trekkers were rescued.

Why听weren’t these people climbing Mount Everest?

The lion’s share of Mount Everest expeditions听happen in May and June, when the weather is calm, temperatures are relatively warm, and the route from Base Camp to the summit is clear.

Over the years, some climbers have ascended Mount Everest in September and October, but this time of year presents meteorological challenges. Every year, the summer monsoon drop tons of snow on the summit, increasing avalanche risk. Hiking through the deep snow drifts above 26,000 feet is torturous and time consuming. Plus, there’s always the looming threat of a massive storm.

So if they weren’t on Mount Everest, then they weren’t in danger, right?

Not so fast. The high elevation in the Himalayas, when matched with the punishing terrain, prevalence of avalanches, landslides, and floods, means that even somewhat minor weather events can put people into grave danger. According to multiple reports, not everyone on these trekking trips had the correct gear or clothing. The snow was so heavy that people’s tents collapsed. So yeah, these people were in grave danger, even if they weren’t trapped in the Death Zone.

So why do some of these media reports say that hundreds of climbers were rescued on Mount Everest?

Those stories got you to click on them, right?

The post What the Heck Is Going On with the Mount Everest Blizzard Rescue? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In the dark of night on Monday, September 22, American ultrarunner Tyler Andrews was making his way through the Khumbu Icefall, the massive glacier at the base of Mount Everest, when disaster struck. While navigating a fragile bridge across a massive crevasse, the snow beneath his feet gave way, and he plummeted into the hole.

Andrews, 35, was only wearing a t-shirt at the time, his minimalist attire due to his attempt at setting the speed record for ascending the world鈥檚 highest peak from Nepal without the use of supplemental oxygen. His fall was stopped by the safety rope affixed to his harness, leaving him dangling below an overhanging wall in darkness.

鈥淭hat was really, really f-ing scary,鈥� Andrews told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚 had to use a bunch of different skills in that situation, including just the ability to stay calm in a crisis in the mountains, in the middle of the night at 6,000 meters elevation, which is not trivial.鈥�

Andrews eventually freed himself from the pit and got back on the trail, but the fall marked an ominous bellwether for his expedition. Hours later, he turned back short of the summit when he encountered deep snowdrifts on the peak鈥檚 upper flanks.

Andrews made a second attempt on September 25, climbing past Camp IV and onto the highest section of the route. But the deep snow slowed him, and he again turned back, and headed to Base Camp, where he eventually decided to call it quits.

Andrews spoke to 国产吃瓜黑料 while he was on a beach in Thailand, recovering from the two ascents.

鈥淚鈥檓 really, really tired,鈥� Andrews added. 鈥淚’m still getting sensation back in a couple of my toes.鈥�

These marked his fourth and fifth unsuccessful attempts in 2025 at breaking the speed record on the world鈥檚 highest peak without the use of supplemental oxygen. The current record, set by Nepali climber Kaji Sherpa in 1998, stands at 20 hours, 24 minutes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard for me to look at stuff from other people鈥檚 point of view and see that it鈥檚 pretty remarkable,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 like I鈥檝e gone out, taken a swing, and I鈥檓 zero for five. And that sucks.鈥�

The Hurdles of Record Chasing at Extreme Altitude

When Andrews first arrived at Mount Everest Base Camp in May, he expected a completely different outcome. After months of high-altitude training, he was in the best shape of his life, he told 国产吃瓜黑料, and the conditions on the mountain looked ideal.

鈥淭here鈥檚 literally no part of me that thought I would leave Nepal in the spring without the record,鈥� he added, 鈥淚 just couldn鈥檛 imagine a scenario where I wouldn鈥檛 be able to get it done in two tries.鈥�

His first attempt on May 10 was his closest shot at the record. He departed Base Camp in the middle of the night, speeding through the Khumbu Icefall and up through the Western Cwm well ahead of record pace. But at Camp III, as Andrews changed from lightweight footwear into his mountaineering boots, the zipper on one of his boots broke. He tried to fix the damage, but to no avail, and after snow and ice began to seep into his sock, he turned back.

鈥淚 think it would have gone that day if my boot didn鈥檛 break,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he frustrating thing about that is that it was the first attempt, and then all this other part of the story would never have happened. You only really need one little thing to go wrong.鈥�

On his second attempt, Andrews was forced to turn back from the summit by violent winds. He regrouped and made a third attempt, but turned back due to exhaustion.

Andrews abandoned his spring attempt and, after recovering from his efforts, returned to training, determined to come back even stronger for the quieter fall season. His optimism was buoyed by the fact that both the current record and the one before it, set by French alpinist Marc Batard and Kaji Sherpa, respectively, were achieved in the fall. When he arrived at Base Camp in September, Andrews felt that he was the strongest he鈥檇 ever been.

In the spring, Andrews was accompanied by a large documentary film crew and a full support team. For the fall, he pared his expedition听down to a small group, hoping that fewer crew would mean fewer chances for things to go wrong.

鈥淭here were times that almost felt like there were just too many people trying to get too much done,鈥� he said. 鈥淓verything that I’ve done in the past that has gone really, really well has been with a very small team. And I think especially on a mountain like Everest, that’s so complex, that’s still the best way. The simpler it is, the better, because there’s just fewer points of failure.鈥�

But he still encountered problems. During his September 25 attempt, barely recovered from his fall in the Khumbu Icefall, Andrews charged up the Lhotse face. Because of an unstable snowpack, he followed fixed lines on a steeper route to the left that led directly to the South Col.

鈥淭he Lhotse Face was, if anything, better than I expected. The lower part had decent snow, and I was moving a little bit better, a tiny bit ahead of what I predicted, which was great,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd then, somewhere near the top, maybe around 7,800 meters (25,590 feet), the snow started to get real, real bad.鈥�

Andrews had planned to follow two strong Sherpas from Camp IV to the summit, conserving his strength for the final push. When he arrived, he met them returning to camp, having abandoned their attempt because the snow was too deep and unstable.

鈥淭hey basically told me it’s not possible,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淭hey were just like, 鈥業t’s not going to happen, man.鈥� So I tried to go out of camp and walk up a little bit, and even following in their footsteps was quite slow.鈥�

He tried to persuade the Sherpas to spend the night and attempt the summit the next morning鈥攈e wouldn’t get the record, but he would complete a rare no-oxygen ascent. The Sherpas refused, citing insufficient oxygen supplies as a concern for their own safety.

鈥淚t was a team decision,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 recognize I could have gone solo, and if I were an elite mountaineer, maybe I would have done that. But I’ve always said, you know, I’m not an elite mountaineer. I’m not an alpinist, and that鈥檚 not my skillset. So we sat in the camp for a bit and then made the very, very long trip all the way back to Base Camp.鈥�

Is the FKT on Everest Even Possible?

Mount Everest presents major hurdles to speed climbers like Andrews. The high winds and bad weather only subside for a handful of weeks in the spring, and that鈥檚 when dozens of commercially guided expeditions attempt to scale the peak. These expeditions wait for the best windows of calm weather to push for the summit, and their ascents are usually slowed by bottlenecks听 and congestion.

Andrews had to schedule his spring ascents so as to not overlap with the commercial climbs, and that meant targeting days with questionable weather or poor conditions along the route.

That wasn鈥檛 the case in 1998 when Kaji Sherpa made his record-breaking听ascent. Only about 100 people climbed Mount Everest that year. By contrast, around 700 people reached the summit from Nepal in 2025.

There are far fewer climbers on Mount Everest in the fall than in the spring, but the peak鈥檚 higher flanks are often buried under deep snowfall after the summer monsoons. And the route to the summit is often swept over by avalanches.

Given the intense commercialization and crowding on Mount Everest in the spring, and the increasingly unstable fall weather driven by climate change, even Andrews wonders if the Mount Everest speed record is attainable.

鈥淓ven after the first attempt, I was just like, 鈥榤aybe this record is just not possible from Nepal anymore,鈥� Andrews told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚 definitely did think the conditions were going to be better. And, you know, maybe that was just naivet茅 on my part.鈥�

Andrews told 国产吃瓜黑料 that he has no plans yet to return to Mount Everest in 2025 or next year. He will take a few weeks to rest and recover before deciding听on whether or not he will continue to chase the record.

But Andrews has already drawn considerable attention to the peak and the attempts to climb it as quickly as possible. Prior to Mount Everest, he set speed records on 26,781-foot Manaslu, 22,837-foot Aconcagua, as well as Mount Fuji, Kilimanjaro, and other high peaks.

鈥淭he thing that I’m the most proud of is that I’ve been able to grow a lot as a mountain athlete in terms of my ability to handle crises and make decisions,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淚 think I’m more proud of the process than the outcome.鈥�

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When I was 15 years old, my father embarked on a seemingly impossible quest.

He became consumed with finding a copy of the 1975 Oscar-winning documentary听. The famed film chronicles the at-the-time bonkers quest of Japanese alpinist Yuichiro Miura to 鈥攚ell, part of it, anyway鈥攐n skis.

Alas, this was the mid-nineties, the era of Blockbuster Video ubiquity, and long before the Internet made obtaining obscure movies a one-click ordeal. For years, my poor dad drove around to Denver-area independent video stores asking if they had a copy. And then, after so much setback, my dad finally found one. Triumphantly, he sat me down on the couch, popped the video cassette into our VCR, and hit play.

Look, as an adult, I’ve come to appreciate The Man Who Skied Down Everest for its contemplative storytelling and (by seventies technology standards) mind-boggling footage. But as a 15-year-old who consumed Mountain Dew-drenched extreme sports video, I was pretty underwhelmed by the clip of Miura’s actual descent. The , with seventies pew-pew sound effects. With a parachute billowing behind him, Miura makes a couple of pizza turns on the sheer and horribly icy Lhotse Face听before catching an edge and then tumbling several thousand feet to the bank of a crevasse. But hey, he lived to tell the tale.

 

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Of course, memories of this viewing come to mind whenever a new video surfaces of a daredevil ski mountaineer descending a massive peak. And it’s all I can think about this week after watching the latest clip to enter the oeuvre.

On September 25, Red Bull of Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel skiing down Mount Everest. For anyone unfamiliar with Andrzej Bargiel, he skis steep, sheer, and utterly deadly slopes like you or I might descend a catwalk. He’s the only person to have ever climbed and then skied down K2.

, Bargiel skied from the summit down to Camp IV,听all the way down the Lhotse Face, across the Western Cwm, down the Khumbu Icefall (huh?), and on to Base Camp, for a total of 5.5 miles and 8,215 vertical feet. It’s the standard Nepal route that, each year, hundreds climb up and down. And Bargiel did the whole ski descent without the use of supplemental oxygen.

This was his third attempt at the feat, having tried and come up short in 2019 and 2022.

The feat is reportedly a first. Yes, plenty of skiers have descended parts of Everest since Yuichiro Miura’s tumble 50 years ago. But nobody has done the whole shebang without supplemental oxygen. Think it’s hard to descend the brutal moguls at your local resort? Try doing that at 29,000 feet.

How Bargiel navigated the skyscraper-sized ice blocks, sheer dropoffs, and general chaos of the Khumbu Icefall鈥攖he sheer glacier just above Base Camp鈥攐n skis is itself a feat that makes my head hurt.

Those of us who follow Mount Everest expeditions knew that Bargiel was up to something鈥擡xplorersweb and other publications had reported on his expedition to ascend Mount Everest earlier this summer. As my colleague Ben Ayers wrote in a recent story, ascending Mount Everest in the fall is a real roll of the dice. The peak is usually covered in deep snow after the summer monsoons. It’s windy and bleak, and there are fewer guides and expeditions on the mountain听to help break trail.

According to Red Bull, the climb itself was anything but easy. It took Bargiel 16 hours to make it from Camp IV to the summit. He did climb with supplemental oxygen.

OK鈥攕o the ski descent wasn’t all in one push. He skied to Camp II and rested for the night, before waking up the next day to complete the rest of the journey.

The Instagram clip of his accolade is amazing, and it showcases just how far mountaineering, skiing, and yes, video production at 29,000 feet, have come. Unlike the clip from 1975, this one is crisp, clear, and shows every turn in high definition. I will be eagerly waiting by my laptop for the full documentary of this feat to air.

Like many Everest nerds, the biggest question I have is how the heck he skied down the Khumbu Icefall. Red Bull gave paltry few details in its rundown. Apparently, his brother, Bartek, used a flying drone to help him find the best way through the ice.

“I split the descent into two parts, as navigating the technically difficult icefall in relatively safe conditions was only possible in the morning,” Bargiel said in a release. “The summit itself was arduous and difficult. I’d never spent so much time at such an altitude in my life, so that was a challenge in itself.”

Sounds pretty tough. But is it as hard as locating an obscure movie back in 1996? The jury is still out.

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