On the morning of April 18, 2014 a blazing sun straddled the shoulder of Everest, scorching the tips of the sleeping Khumbu Icefall. On the fractured glacier, sixteen men worked, fixing the ropes under a ridge heavy with ice and snow. Some four hundred meters south, Base Camp Khumbu nestled itself into the barren arms of a rock-laden landscape. Men and women who’d spent the better part of two weeks acclimatizing were going over their gear.
When the first loud c***k echoed over the land, all eyes went upward.
Every heart came to a thudding halt.
The sleeping Goddess of the Himalayas woke, shrugged her mighty shoulders and sent fifteen thousand metric tons of ice barreling down to the doorstep of Base Camp. An eerie silence followed and people clawed and stumbled out of their torn and bat
