Everest sherpas abandon climbing season after deaths
Sherpas who work as guides on Mount Everest have said they will not work again this climbing season to honour 16 colleagues killed in an avalanche last week.
Mount Everest sherpas: Facts and figures
- The cost of climbing Everest dropped this year to as low as £6,500
- Sherpas' insurance compensation was doubled to £6,000 at the start of 2014
- Nepal's government said it would pay families of sherpas killed on Friday £247 to cover funeral costs, before today announcing an improved package
- Sherpas make around £4,000 a year
- The average annual income in Nepal is just over £400
- Before Friday's deadly avalanche, the single deadliest accident was in 1996, when eight people died
- The summit of Mount Everest is 8,850 metres and takes 12 hours to climb
- There are an estimated 100,000 sherpas in Nepal, according to the Royal Embassy of Nepal
- More than 800 people attempted to scale Mount Everest last year, according to the Nepal Tourism Ministry’s mountaineering department.
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