Sherpas leave Mount Everest’s base camp as expeditions cancel climbs

Dozens of Sherpa guides packed up their tents and left Mount Everest’s base camp on Wednesday, after the avalanche deaths of 16 of their colleagues exposed an undercurrent of resentment by Sherpas over their pay, treatment and benefits.

With the entire climbing season increasingly thrown into doubt, the government quickly announced that top tourism officials would fly to base camp on Thursday to negotiate with the Sherpas and encourage them to return to work.

But while Nepal’s government has been heavily criticised for not doing enough for the Sherpas in the wake of last week’s disaster, the deadliest ever on the mountain, one top official blamed the walkout on “hooligans.”

“It was crowd behaviour – some hooligans were creating problems, but things are getting back to normal,” said Sushil Ghimire, secretary of Nepal’s Tourism Ministry. He and other top officials were to fly by helicopter on Thursday to base camp.

While it was unclear just how many of the 400 or so Sherpas on the mountain had joined the walkout, a number of expedition companies have already cancelled their climbs, and the lucrative climbing season is in disarray. Most attempts to reach Everest’s summit are made in mid-May, when a brief window normally offers better weather.