Icefall doctors have prepared a climbing route up to Camp IV on Everest as of Thursday after being prevented from working for four days due to bad weather.

The so-called icefall doctors are a highly trained team of Sherpas who enter the deadly icefall and prepare a safe route for climbers headed for the world’s highest peak.

According to the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), a nine-member team of icefall doctors has been formed to prepare a route up to the summit from Camp IV after two days. “Route preparation work was temporarily halted until Tuesday due to bad weather,” said Dambar Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators’ Association of Nepal. “But work has resumed now.”

He added if the weather remains good, the summit push will begin after seven to eight days. The icefall doctors secured routes up to Camp III last Friday. Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the NMA, said that this year the Expedition Operators’ Associ-ation had taken the responsibility to check whether prospective climbers are fit to make summit bids amid increasing concerns over safety. The association will also decide which team and how many climbers should be dispatched for the summit push on a particular day. “The move is aimed at reducing ‘traffic jams’ on Everest.”

There have been several instances of climbers dying on the slopes of Everest as a large number tried to reach the summit at the same time during a short weather window. “But now, safety measures have been enhanced,” said Sherpa. There are double routes or ropes for ascent and descent in many places to make climbing easier and reduce congestion.

The route starts from Everest Base Camp at 5,380 metres. Camps I, II and III are located at altitudes of 6,065 metres, 6,500 metres and 7,470 metres respectively.

Climbers make their final summit push from Camp IV at 7,920 metres. They set out for the top from a point called the ‘balcony’ at 8,400 metres usually around midnight.

Two hundred and eighty nine climbers are in a bid to exploit a short window of good weather to stand atop Mt Everest this spring. Normally 50-60 percent of the climbers succeed in reaching the top as most of them decide to abandon their bids when they reach Camp 3 and Camp 4.  

Last year, 356 mountaineers had acquired climbing permits. However, there were no Everest bids in the spring of 2015 due to avalanches set off by the devastating April 25 earthquake.