The Elite ‘Doctors’ Who Care for Mount Everest

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The Elite ‘Doctors’ Who Care for Mount Everest

Glacial ice has sealed the gateway to Everest’s summit, keeping hundreds of climbers from reaching the top. “Icefall doctors” are on the case.

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A wall of ice has halted Mount Everest’s climbing season. Mountaineers tasked with maintaining the route, known as icefall doctors, are under pressure to clear a path.

Credit...

Purnima Shrestha/Reuters

By

John Yoon

and

Binod Ghimire

Binod Ghimire reported from Kathmandu, Nepal.

April 25, 2026,

5:48 a.m. ET

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Dawa Jangbu Sherpa is one of 11 elite doctors who monitor the perilous slopes of Mount Everest. But he isn’t there to address medical emergencies — the mountain itself is his patient.

He and a team of other Nepali mountain guides, known as “icefall doctors,” tend to Everest’s ever-shifting landscape. Mr. Sherpa operates on a two-mile stretch of treacherous terrain near the peak, called the Khumbu Icefall, mending routes with ropes and ladders to establish safe paths for the hundreds of climbers who attempt the summit each year.

Mr. Sherpa and his colleagues have come under extra pressure this week as hundreds of climbers at Everest’s base camp stare up at an obstacle between them and the highest point on earth: a towering blue-white ice wall that has blocked the only passable path to the top.

“The paths are generally blocked by layers of snow every year, but I’ve never seen one this big before,” Mr. Sherpa, 28, said in a phone interview from the camp more than 17,000 feet above sea level.

After visiting the ice and surveying it with drones, he and other icefall doctors deemed it too risky to pass because of its uncommonly large size. But they have struggled to find an alternate path. This has forced the hundreds of climbers to wait for days until the ice wall melts and collapses.

The ice wall, called a serac, appeared about a week ago after heavy snowfall, Mr. Sherpa said on Friday. The blockage has shortened the brief window of time when climbers can reach the peak during the busy spring season.

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