What is the Hillary Step on Mount Everest, who was Edmund Hillary and why has it collapsed?
A piece of mountaineering history has disappeared following the Nepal earthquake in 2015
THE collapse of Mount Everest's famous Hillary Step devastated mountaineers and made the world's highest peak even more dangerous to climbers.
But why is the rocky outcrop so well known and why has it been destroyed?
What is the Hillary Step on Mount Everest?
The Hillary Step is a 39ft rocky outcrop which stands on Mount Everest's southeast ridge.
It is known as the climber's last great challenge before reaching the top of the world's highest peak.
Experienced climbers believe a bottleneck will now be formed at Hillary Step as people struggle to safely climb down on huge unstable rocks.
Who was Edmund Hillary?
Hillary Step was named after Sir Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.
Ed was a New Zealand mountaineer who served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II.
Later in his life, Ed became the first person to reach both the North Pole and South Pole, as well as Mount Everest.
He founded the Himalayn Trust so that he could devote his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal.
The mountaineer died aged 88 in 2008 and was given a state funeral.
Why has the Hillary Step collapsed?
In May 2017, British mountaineer Tim Mosedale used social media to tell the world Hillary Step had collapsed.
He believes it fell victim to Nepal's devastating earthquake in 2015, but snow had covered up the extent of the damage.
Mosedale, who climbed the peak for the sixth time on May 16 2017, told the : “It’s a piece of mountaineering history that has disappeared.
"Even non-mountaineers know the name and the association of the infamous Hillary Step."
