History-making climber safe after avalanche

Amid the heartrending reports of death and destruction that have flowed from Nepal in the aftermath of Saturday’s earthquake comes confirmation that the nation’s most celebrated female climber is among those to have survived the deadly Everest avalanches.

Chhurim Sherpa, who in 2012 entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first female mountaineer to successfully scale Mount Everest twice in a single climbing season, was part of a climbing expedition near the Everest Base Camp when the initial quake struck.

While communication networks within Nepal are damaged and confirmation as to the welfare of many of the 1,000 or more people on Everest remains unclear, Chhurim has reported that her trekking team that included climbers from South Africa, Australia and India is safe.

The group was understood to have reached Gorak Shep, the final Himalayan village before climbers make the two-hour trek to Everest Base Camp where at least 18 people were killed and more than 60 injured when the earthquake triggered a huge avalanche on Saturday. 

Chhurim and her team had departed Kathmandu eight days earlier to begin an ascent of Everest that was expected to take around 45 days, weather and conditions permitting.

In addition to the trekking group with which she was working, the 31-year-old was carrying with her a cricket bat and two shirts (a Test and ODI shirt) belonging to the late Australia batsman Phillip Hughes.

These items were to have been taken to the summit of Mount Everest as a unique tribute from the Cricket Association of Nepal to the cricketer who died last November after he was struck by a ball while batting for South Australia against New South Wales at the SCG.

It was initially planned that on their return from the Everest summit, the items that had been provided with the consent and support of Phillip Hughes’s family would be displayed at a permanent memorial at the Australia Embassy in Kathmandu.

“We were much worried about our climber but she just reported to us she is safe in (Everest) Base Camp,” the Association’s Chief Executive Bhawana Ghimire said from Kathmandu last night.

As the airlifting of injured and the search for survivors continues on the slopes of Everest, the climbing season – which reaches its height in April before the mid-year monsoonal rains and clouds envelope the 8,848m peak – is over. 

The ongoing seismic tremors that have brought down avalanches of rock and ice have laid waste to the route to Everest’s summit and destroyed many of the 50 or so icefall ladders put in place to enable climbers to traverse the deep glacial crevasses.

In addition, a number of Sherpa guides who were traumatised by the deaths of 16 of their colleagues when an avalanche hit at the height of last year’s climbing season have already indicated their reluctance to return to the mountain in the future.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has established a 24-hour consular emergency line through which people concerned about relatives or friends in Nepal can make enquiries by phoning 1300 555 135 within Australia or +61 2 6261 3305 from outside.

And Australian Red Cross has launched a Nepal Region 2015 Earthquake Appeal to raise funds for humanitarian relief to people affected by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that has now officially claimed more than 3,000 lives.