Mount Everest avalanches 2015

source: en.wikipedia.org

During the afternoon of 25 April 2015, a MW 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal and surrounding nations. Shaking from the quake triggered an avalanche from Pumori into the basecamp on Mount Everest. At least twenty-two people were killed, surpassing an avalanche that occurred the previous year as the deadliest disaster on the mountain.

Avalanches
Mount Everest was approximately 220 kilometres (140 mi) east of the epicentre, and between 700 and 1,000 people were on or near the mountain when the earthquake struck,including 359 climbers at Base Camp, many of whom had returned after the aborted 2014 season.[4] The earthquake triggered several large avalanches on and around the mountain. One avalanche, originating on the nearby peak of Pumori, swept into South Base Camp and then through part of the Khumbu Icefall.An Indian Army mountaineering team recovered the bodies of 19 mountaineers from the South Base Camp and rescued at least 61 stranded climbers from the mountain.

At least 61 people were injured, with dozens initially reported missing, and many more stranded at camps at higher elevations, having lost secure descent routes.

Effect on 2015 climbing season
 Although the ladders at the Khumbu Icefall were damaged by the avalanches, a handful of mountaineers, undeterred by the disaster, immediately sought Nepalese government permission to continue with their attempt on the mountain and were granted permission to do so on 29 April 2015."The ladders will be repaired in the next two to three days and climbing will continue, there is no reason for anyone to quit their expedition," said Tulsi Gautam, chief of the Nepal Department of Tourism. "There is no scientific reason to expect another quake... and we feel the ground is stable enough for climbing despite aftershocks."

It was later announced the closure of routes over the icefall for the remainder of the season, the second consecutive year that the mountain has been closed due to avalanches.After the second earthquake on 12 May 2015, Dambar Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators' Association of Nepal, said there were no climbers or Nepali sherpa guides remaining at Everest Base Camp.As a result, no one climbed Mount Everest in the spring of 2015, the first time in 41 years that this has happened.