Nepal may install ladders on Everest’s Hillary Step

KATHMANDU (AFP): Nepal may install ladders on Mount Everest’s Hillary Step, the final rock wall which climbers have to scale to reach the summit, in a bid to ease congestion, the government said on Monday.

Expedition organisers announced last week that extra ropes would be fixed on congested ice walls like the Hillary Step, where mountaineers have faced frustrating delays in the past.

Now Nepal’s tourism ministry says it is considering going one step further in a move that it says would improve safety and end logjams.

“There is a traffic jam at the Hillary Step during the main climbing months between April and June, so for the safety of mountaineers we are considering fixing ladders there,” ministry spokesman Mohan Krishna Sapkota told AFP.