70 years ago the conquest. Now the base camp is a landfill and they want to move it (also for climatic reasons) – Corriere.it

Exactly 70 years ago, on May 29, 1953 at 11.30 (5.45 in Italy), the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Everest, the highest peak in the world at 8,849 meters in height. A historic feat completed by the couple, after numerous attempts in the previous decades, some of which ended in tragedy, including that of George Mallory in 1924.

The climb

The photo taken by Hillary (above) remained famous, in which she shows her climbing partner with the ice ax raised with the flags of Nepal, Great Britain, India and the UN. The two ascended the South Col and then continued on the South-East Ridge in the British-led expedition commanded by Colonel John Hunt.

The base camp

Now the situation is very different. Commercial expeditions bring hundreds (in some cases thousands) of climbers to the roof of the world every year, some improvised, for a fee of tens of thousands of euros. The base camp turned into a real open-air dump at an altitude of 5,360 metres. So much so that the Nepalese authorities are considering moving it lower down, also for climatic reasons. Global warming is also putting the Himalayan glaciers at serious risk, including the Khumbu glacier, which descends from Everest. However, both the Nepalese porters (Sherpas) and the mountaineers opposed this proposal. Moving lower by 200-400 meters would in fact require a three-hour march to reach the Khumbu icefall, an icefall, a crucial and dangerous point in the ascent of the South Col (the normal route of Everest). To overcome them, the Sherpas recommend leaving when it is still night or at dawn at the latest to prevent the crevasses from moving under temperatures which are no longer those of Tenzing and Hillary’s time. Three Sherpas died on April 12 right on the crevasses of the Khumbu while they were preparing the ropes for the ascent of the commercial expeditions.