Early every morning, hours before the sun strikes the lower slopes of the highest mountain in the world, four men set out into some of the most dangerous terrain on Earth. Their goal is not sporting success, fleeting fame or exploration. It is simply to stay alive and to earn $10 for their day’s work.



These are the icefall doctors, a team of elite local guides charged with securing a route to allow largely foreign climbers to pass safely through the maze of deep crevasses and frozen cliffs formed as the Khumbu glacier moves down from Mount Everest towards the valleys below in Nepal. Without them, no ascent of the 8,848 metre (29,029ft) peak via the route followed by the vast majority of mountaineers is possible.

This season their work has a particular significance and poignancy. A year ago, 16 men doing the same job were killed by an avalanche that swept the glacier. In April and May, two earthquakes killed 9,000 people in Nepal, and 18 died at Everest’s base camp.

Tourism, whether on Everest or down in Nepal’s valleys and plains, has long been a vital foreign exchange earner for this desperately poor south Asian nation. Now, scared by the disaster this year, wealthy foreigners are staying away. Faced with the mammoth task of rehousing more than a million people, rebuilding thousands of schools and restoring hundreds of heritage sites and government buildings, officials in Kathmandu say it is essential to make clear that Everest is still open for climbers, and that Nepal is safe.

“We are giving the message that Nepal is back on top of the world. All mountains in Nepal are OK to climb, including Mount Everest of course. The earthquake has negatively affected our economy but there are good signs that [the tourists] are coming back,” said Gobinda Karkee, the director general of Nepal’s tourism department.

We are giving the message that Nepal is back on top of the world. All mountains in Nepal are OK to climb

The icefall doctors are at the forefront of the effort, and will work until the last climber has left the mountain this season.

One of the team is Nima Dorchi from Chaurikharka, a small village south of Everest. The 43-year-old has been working as an icefall doctor since 2012. This year he hopes to earn about $2,000 (£1,300), including the $10 day wage, a bonus and cash given to buy high-altitude equipment. The money will go to rebuild his house, almost destroyed by the earthquake in April, and to pay school fees for his six children.

“If it’s good weather and we are at base camp, I start work at six in the morning. If I am at camp one [at 6,000 metres], or even higher, I’ll start at 2am. And when the weather is bad, we just sit in our tents and play cards with my friends. Every night I hear the sound of avalanches but I am used to it now so I don’t feel afraid,” Dorchi said.

Nima Dorchi hopes to earn $2,000 this year working as an icefall doctor, which he will spend rebuilding his earthquake-damaged home. Photograph: Nima Dorchi

The most experienced of the icefall doctors is the team leader, Ang Kami Sherpa, a 64-year-old veteran of dozens of ascents of Nepal’s highest peaks.

“It’s just my work. I have come to do what I have to do and earn money,” he said, speaking by telephone from base camp.

Climbing on Everest, first conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, has become hugely controversial, with much criticism of a system that sees foreign expedition organisers hiring local guides and support staff whose pay is a tiny fraction of the fees westerners pay to reach the summit. Accidents in recent years have prompted some reforms, with marginally better conditions, protection and remuneration for Nepalese working on the mountain, though much remains to be done.

However, earnings from mountaineering have allowed many local families to escape crushing poverty. Many younger people who grew up in the Khumbu valley region around Everest now live in Kathmandu, the capital, working in prestigious professions or launching successful businesses. Few will have to follow the dangerous backbreaking careers of their fathers.

The fees paid by climbers and expeditions for permits to climb provide useful income for the government too. Though numbers are down, 36 expedition permits have been issued to foreign mountaineers by authorities this autumn, despite the harsh seasonal conditions.

Nima Dorchi at work establishing a safe route through the Khumbu iceflow, a key stage of the Everest mountain range ascent. Photograph: Nima Dorchi

Only one expedition is heading for Everest, and comprises just two mountaineers, only one of whom is trying to reach the summit.

Ang Dorje Sherpa, president of the Sagarmatha pollution control committee, which manages the peak, said that once the government issues a permit for the mountain, a route needed to be prepared regardless of the number of climbers. “It is our job to set the route,” he told the AFP news agency. “Tourism as a whole has suffered a downturn … At least if there is an Everest summit this year, it will help send out a positive message.”

Officials point out that other teams scaling mountains next to Everest will be sharing the same route through the icefall.

All know the risks the icefall doctors run. The team are currently forging a path that is away from the zone most threatened by snow slides, but leads through tougher terrain.

“It is dangerous but we try to manage it … It’s been very unlucky for Everest for the past two years but I am sure all that ‘bad luck’ was swept away by last two avalanches,” Ang Dorje said.

Dorchi has already had one close escape, when he fell 30 metres while high on the peak and spent 18 days in hospital.

“At that time I lost all hope of living … I don’t know how I managed to survive. Since then, my children ask me to stay at home and work in the fields. But there’s no alternative. I don’t have much land and with my house collapsed in the earthquake, all my family is living in a cow shed, I can’t just sit at home scared of dying. So I choose to come to the mountain,” he said.

Ang Kami Sherpa, the team leader, said he was happy with his job and would give it up if he felt unsafe. Nor was he bothered by risking his life for a single small expedition. “It’s easier now as there are only two climbers. I am paid the same amount as for a bigger team,” he said.

His house was also damaged in the April earthquake and needs to be rebuilt, and he too must pay for his children’s education.

Ang Kami’s wife, Bhachhiki, 58, said that though she loved her husband, “love doesn’t provide everything”.

“It’s risky but is for our children’s future,” she said.

Dorchi calls his wife every two days. His 16-year-old daughter, Yangi, said she had pleaded with her father to give up being an icefall doctor.

“He never listens to us. He always say he needs to work for money and it’s true that there’s nothing else. We are afraid but what can we do,” Yangi said.