Hillary Step on Everest is gone

if this is true then I say Great ! maybe it will help reduce the size of the conga line of inexperienced tourists who pay big bucks to brag they summited Everest.

Traffic jam at the Hillary step :

There was talk of using a rappel route to the left  for the descent to alleviate the congestion on the step.

It can be seen straight under the climber on the top left of this photo :

a bit tricky at 8800 meters.

Any pics of the Step being gone?  And just because it’s gone does not mean it will be any more difficult to climb this section and to therefore keep the tourists out.  Plus, remember it’s possible to land a helicopter on top of Everest—in fact helicopters at times swarm the mountain.  So how wild could the place be?????

I haven’t seen a good photo so far showing the missing step.

It has been covered with snow since the supposed collapse, so hard to prove if it is there or not and just how it will look without snow. Because of the snow cover it has been easier than usual to go past that area in the meantime.

I suspect that the boulder with the last five climber on it  is the one that has fallen down the cliff.

It might still be there after all.

from the step :

“the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated”

Doug – was just reading that.

I’ve seen some side by side photos but it was unclear for me to see where the before and after photos really show the steps were gone. Partly because of the snow (like the article in the Guardian says).

I guess some people need to take a stroll up and verify.

Hi Ito,

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see which story gets verified.

Pretty much confirmed now.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2191911/american-climbers-confirm-hillary-step-gone

So now that the steps are gone, can we rename it Tenzing Ridge?

+1