Unfortunately there has been some bad news on Everest, but fortunately it does not involve Max. Below you will find the account of what happened from Adventure Peaks and above you can see a photo I used from my climb to ilustrate the route and what a Serac looks like. You can also see some climbers on their way up.
26th Apri Everyone is safe and ok, Stu has telephoned in to inform us that there was a serac collapse (like an avalanche) on the North col this morning which apparently killed two people (Nationallity unconfirmed). Our groups at the time were safely in ABC.
A serac is part of the permanent glacier and because a glacier is always moving (slowly) there is always an inherent danger that ice will break off and fall without notice, this is a rare occurance on the North side of Everest. On the South side of Everest, there is the famous Khumbu Icefall who's dangerous reputation is based on such incidents and one of the main reasons why Adventure Peaks avoids it by climbing from the North.
Our leaders will assess the incident along with other teams to decide if a change in the route is required and the re-fixing of lines. It maybe that this fall has cleared or significantly reduced the dangers.
In my opinion (walid here) this is a real stroke of bad luck for the climebrs involved, but should not impact Max's climb. The chances of a serac fall, as mentioned above, are small on the North Side and I am not too worried. Now all the teams and all the climbers will be very vigilant to make sure this does not happen again. As saying goes, 'man plans, and God laughs'. Best, Walid
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