Sixteen dead, all of them Nepali. Yet the avalanche that swept through Himlung base camp at the start of the autumn season was anything but unpredictable: the camp’s exposure had long been known, and the forecasts had announced the deteriorating weather. A pioneer of guided ascents on this 7,000er since 2002, Paulo Grobel questions the economic model of expeditions, and our own responsibility as mountaineers who all flock to the same summits.
The Himalayan season in Nepal has begun with very bad news: Himlung base camp has been hit by an avalanche. Yet there was nothing exceptional about it: the deterioration had been forecast for more than a week, with intense precipitation.
And this kind of snow event, with more than two metres of snow, has now become a recurring feature of the autumn, as it was last year on Panbari or at the Larkye Pass, with accidents and