Update: I was just finishing up this story when the reports began to trickle in of a massive avalanche on the South Side of Everest, that swept down into the Khumbu Ice Fall. Apparently it was a big one, and there has been at fatality. Two climbers were caught up in the slide, one survived, while another was sent down into a crevasse. Early indications are that it was one of the Sherpas, but who he was climbing with hasn’t been revealed yet. We’ll have to wait to see if …

The Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) is a voluntary non-profit organization formed in 1973 with an objective to reduce casualties in the Nepal Himalayas, especially keeping in view the increasing number of Nepalese and foreigners who trek up into the remote wilderness.

One of the most important tasks of the HRA is to try to prevent deaths from Acute Mountain Sickness that confronts foreign trekkers. For the last thirty-five years, the HRA has helped make a safer Himalaya for tourism. Since its inspection, it has manned a small aid post in the …