Every year, Sherpas find a route through Everest’s dangerous Khumbu Icefall, installing the fixed ropes that paying clients will follow to the summit. But by using drones this spring to guide them, they’ll no longer have to hunt for passage through trial and error.

For the first time, cargo drones will now scout ahead of these Icefall Doctors, finding the safest line. The drones will also carry the ropes and aluminum ladders needed to prepare the route and even shuttle loads up to Camp 1. This minimizes the number of times Sherpas will have to go back and forth through this deadly area, where giant pillars of ice can collapse unpredictably at any time.

According to interviews with guiding services and Sherpas, this technology will do more than save lives. It may also help reduce noise from helicopter equipment flights, making the Everest experience quieter and more environmentally friendly.

The original version of this article was published on ExplorersWeb.

Drone Operators Arrive

A team of drone operators was on its way to Everest Base Camp today and should have reached it. Beginning tomorrow, they will find the best way for the Ice Doctors to climb to the flatter terrain of the Western Cwm, where Camp 1 is located.

Earlier, the Ice Doctors began their precarious work. As of yesterday, they had fixed some 350 m of the Icefall above Base Camp. The drones will now help them, assuming the weather cooperates: Yesterday, high winds flattened several tents in Base Camp.

The drones will ease the Sherpa climbers’ trial-and-error work of finding a relatively safe route through the maze. Last year, the Icefall was particularly complex, and the Sherpas had to try several variations that dead-ended until they found a workable passage through the seracs and crevasses.

The drones are being trialed this year. If successful, their use will be extended soon. The Sherpas and everyone working on the mountain couldn’t be happier with this news.

A Fatal Job for Sherpas

“Carrying loads up and down the Khumbu Icefall is the shittiest job in the Himalaya,” Asian Trekking CEO Dawa Steven Sherpa told ExplorersWeb. “More and more Sherpas simply refuse. They’d rather work on Makalu, Manaslu, or any other peak than on the lower parts of Everest.”

The Sherpas have a good reason to be reluctant. The route from Base Camp to Camp 1 on the Nepal side of Everest cannot skirt the Khumbu Icefall.

This unstable, broken section of the Khumbu Glacier is the most dangerous part of the mountain, and Sherpas risk their lives every time they venture into it.

It has been the scene of many fatalities, and because Sherpas spent the most time in it, they are usually the victims. In 2014, an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall killed 14 Sherpas — one of the worst accidents in the mountain’s history.

Less Crowding

If drones carry loads to Camp 1, Sherpas will only need to cross the Icefall once. They will then remain in the higher camps, retreating to the Western Cwm for fresh supplies when needed. They would not have to risk their lives repeatedly going all the way back to Base Camp for new loads.

“That would also finish the crowding at the Icefall since climbers wouldn’t need to wait in line behind a train of heavily loaded Sherpas,” says Dawa Steven. “Therefore, the foreign climbers will also spend less time in that hazardous area.”

Better Than Helicopters

While drones still need a small generator to feed batteries (there is no electricity in the entire upper Khumbu), they are a cleaner and safer alternative to helicopters, which sometimes shuttle gear to and from Camps 1 and 2.

“Such flights are no joke for the pilots,” Dawa Steven said. “It is a dangerous maneuver done at an extremely high altitude and often in bad weather or high winds.”

He also points out that recent regulations only allow flights to Camp 2 for rescues, not to carry loads.

A Cleaner Mountain

Drones can also retrieve rubbish. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC, the organization that controls much of what goes on in the Khumbu) used drones to retrieve trash from Camp 2 on Ama Dablam last autumn, and the experience was very positive.

They can expand that program for all the 8,000m peaks. The new drone technology comes at a time when Nepalese authorities are most aware of the need to clean up its mountains.

This spring, the Expedition Operators Association will undertake a major cleaning campaign on Everest, coordinated with the SPCC and funded by Nepal’s Tourism Board.

The cleaning team of 12 Sherpas will focus specifically on Camp 4, located at nearly 8,000 m. Several climbers, both foreign and local, have denounced the camp’s pitiful state.

By the time the cleaning begins, the route through the Icefall will be finished, and the drone team can help airlift the garbage from Camp 4 down to Base Camp and further down the valley.