Helicopters Rescue Climbers Trapped on Everest After Quake
Three Sherpas killed attempting to establish escape route through icefall.
Scores of climbers who'd been trapped on Mount Everest in the wake of Saturday's earthquake in Nepal were were evacuated by helicopter on Monday.
An estimated 200 climbers were acclimatizing in a narrow glacial valley known as the Western Cwm—where Camp 1 and Camp 2 are located—when the magnitude 7.8 quake struck, triggering a catastrophic avalanche that blasted through Base Camp, killing 21 and critically injuring dozens.
The quake also severed the route that is set through the dangerously unstable Khumbu Icefall each year with fixed ropes and aluminum ladders, cutting off the climbers’ only way off the mountain and forcing Monday’s helicopter rescue.
Initially, expedition leaders thought they could repair the route through the icefall and bring most of the climbers
