Mount Everest's Hillary Step has collapsed, mountaineer confirms

A British mountaineer has confirmed that a famous rocky outcrop near the peak of Mount Everest has collapsed, potentially making the climb more dangerous.

The Hillary Step, named after Sir Edmund Hillary who, along with the sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first person to climb the mountain in 1953, may have been destroyed during the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

The 12 metre-high rocky outcrop was a near-vertical climb on the south-east ridge of the mountain. There had been rumours from climbers on earlier expeditions that the step had been destroyed, but snowy conditions made it difficult to confirm. "It was reported last year, and indeed I climbed it last year, but we weren't sure for certain that the step had gone because the area was blasted with snow. This year, however, I can report that the chunk of rock named the Hillary Step is definitely not there any more," mountaineer Tim Mosedale said.

Reports of the step's destruction began circulating last year after photographs were published by the American Himalayan Foundation. But snow cover in the pictures made it difficult to say whether the section had definitely collapsed.