This season as many as 425 climbers hold permits to attempt Mount Everest, but many may never reach the summit.
A massive wall of ice in the Khumbu Icefall has blocked the usual route and left hundreds of climbers waiting at Base Camp. The Khumbu Icefall is a notoriously dangerous, constantly shifting glacier section that has caused multiple fatalities over the years; this year a large serac — a towering block of unstable ice — is obstructing passage, making rotations and summit pushes impossible while it remains in place.
In an Instagram post, 23-year-old climber Xavier Ladouceur warned that the closure has created a perilous situation. He said Everest 2026 is not proceeding as planned and described Base Camp filling with climbers watching the clock toward the narrow summit window. If the route opens late, he warned, many teams could attempt the summit at once, raising the risk of a deadly bottleneck.
The post has provoked strong reactions online. Some users argued that mountains shouldn’t be treated as tourist attractions, writing things like ‘maybe mountains just exist and not to be climbed.’ Others called for respect for the mountain’s sanctity and pointed to the environmental and human costs — dead bodies, human waste, and discarded gear — that have accumulated on Everest. Another commenter criticized the crowds and queues, saying climbing the mountain has become less about mountaineering and more about a spectacle.
The combination of a blocked Icefall, a limited summit window, and hundreds of permit holders creates a difficult risk-management problem for expedition teams and authorities. Until the ice clears and the Khumbu route is declared safe, many climbers will remain at Base Camp, and the season’s outcome will hinge on how and when that narrow window opens.
