Horrifying footage of the accident at Everest Cornice » Explorersweb

When Everest climbers have a Wi-Fi connection again at base camp, they post pictures of their summits – and of crowds, chaos, frightening moments and, unfortunately, death.

IFMGA guide Vinayak Malla climbed Everest with Elite Exped clients at 6 a.m. on the morning of May 21, the busiest summit day. On the way back, they filmed how the snow cornice could not withstand the weight of hundreds of climbers, gave way and dragged several people into the void.

The video does not show the actual collapse, only its lead-up and aftermath. Nevertheless, the footage is stunning for its clarity and its depiction of the insane sight of a crowded summit ridge, with dozens of climbers inching their way across a narrow patch of snow that cannot support the weight and eventually collapses.

“The summit ridge of Everest felt different than my previous experiences on the mountain,” Malla said. “There was soft snow, lots of snow cornices and rocky sections covered in snow. Even the weather station was half buried in snow.”

Dozens of climbers are trudging along just a few meters from the summit of Everest. Video: Vanayak Malla

Sudden catastrophe

“After reaching the summit, we crossed the Hillary Step. Traffic was moving slowly. Then suddenly an avalanche broke a few meters in front of us,” recalls Malla. He and his clients were on another section of the avalanche, but it did not give way.

Malla’s second video shows the broken snow cornice section and climbers clinging to the fixed ropes, desperately trying to hoist themselves back to safe ground.

“When the cornice collapsed, four climbers almost lost their lives, but were attached to the rope and managed to save themselves,” Malla wrote. “Two climbers are unfortunately still missing.”

Malla then tells how he saved the situation – and possibly many lives.

We tried to cross, but that was impossible because of the traffic on the landline. Many climbers were stuck in traffic and oxygen was running low. I was able to break a new route so that the descending traffic moved more slowly again.

The situation is similar to other mountain accidents where a broken rope leaves climbers stranded. Something similar happened on Broad Peak in 2021, when the fixed rope on a ridge broke and the Russian mountaineer Nastya Runova and a little later the Korean Kim HongBin were stranded. Waiting above them were over a dozen climbers who didn’t have the experience to tackle this section without ropes. Several suffered frostbite. Runova was saved, but Kim died.

However, the numbers on Everest’s summit ridge on May 21 were greater than on any other mountain.

Another victim

Meanwhile, the death of another climber on Everest has been confirmed.

“Binod Babu Bastakoti of Pokhara died at about 8,300m altitude, just above Camp 4, after suffering from illness while descending from the peak (on Wednesday, May 22),” said Narbin Magar of Booking Own Pvt. Ltd told The Himalayan Times.

Binod Babu Bastakoti from Nepal. Photo: Instagram

Bastakoti is the sixth death on Everest this season; the seventh if you count Romanian Gabriel Tabara, who died in Camp 3 but whose goal was Lhotse.