EVEREST SHUTS DOWN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1987

Mount Everest will not be conquered for the first time in 27 years as climbing season is called off after sherpa guides' strike over avalanche threat. 

Climbers and their local guides were descending from Everest base camp yesterday as officials said a sherpa boycott and fresh avalanches had ended hopes of any group reaching the summit this year from the more popular Nepal side.

More than 300 climbers had hoped to scale Everest this season but the deaths of 16 sherpas last week in the worst ever accident on the mountain left the local guides distraught and angry. They were swept away by an ice avalanche as they fixed ropes up to camp two at above 19,000 feet. 
It will be the first time in 27 years that the Everest route will be closed to climbers, although dozens are attempting to reach the summit from the northern Tibetan side.

• Dipendra Paude, a spokesman for Nepal’s tourism ministry told The Daily Telegraph records showed the last time was in 1987, when it was closed due to bad weather.
• Earlier this week, sherpa threatened to boycott the rest of the season unless the government agreed a new compensation package for sherpas injured and higher life insurance payments for the families of those killed. Nepal’s tourism minister flew to the base camp for talks with sherpas on Wednesday but they failed to reach agreement.
• They had demanded that payments to widows and families be doubled to £12,000.
• The demands had caused a rift with some of the sherpas who depend on the payments of up to £4,100 they can earn for leading a group to the summit - around ten times the average wage in Nepal. 

Mr Paude said some of them had wanted to stay and climb but he could not confirm reports that they had been threatened by other sherpas supporting the boycott.

Adrian Ballinger, an American mountaineer, had reported that younger sherpas had been behaving aggressively and attempting to stop others continuing with their expeditions.

Fresh avalanches and icefalls reported near the Khumbu icefall earlier however brought the climbing season to a final halt. 

Source: Telegraph