17,500'-19,500'
The Ice Fall is the most dangerous part of the western approach to Everest. As the glacial mass of the Western Cwm slides into the Khumbu Valley, it falls about 2,000' in less than a mile breaking into a spectacular jumble of constantly shifting ice blocks (seracs). Because these huge ice cubes continue sliding, the Ice Fall is never stable — seracs break off, new cravasses open up, and it can happen at any moment. More climbers have died in the ice of the Khumbu than any other single part of the mountain. "One can only go in and hope," the late Dougal Haston is quoted as saying in Walt Unsworth's Everest. "When one finally comes out of the icy mess into the Western Cwm, it is like being in a newer, brighter land."
