Traversing through the Khumbu icefall is one of the crux of climbing Everest. We must climb up through the broken glacier, pass between giant intimidating seracs and cross over very large crevasses (sometimes several ladders tied together). The threat of falling seracs means we need to climb quickly and safely, and often very early in the morning to avoid melt.

Today Margaret and Warren with Sumit tested their new ladder crossing skills by climbing halfway through the icefall. Both climbers felt good by the experience, so we rounded back to base camp for lunch. Tomorrow we’ll have a proper rest before our first rotation climb to Camp 1, which sits at the top of the icefall.