Mountain guides decide to stop climbing this year in honour of 16 colleagues killed in worst-ever accident on peak 
 
 Nepalese guides on Mount Everest have decided to abandon this year's climbing season, to honour 16 colleagues killed in an avalanche last week. The Nepal National Mountain Guide Association in Katmandu would try to negotiate with the Sherpas and the government because a total boycott would harm Nepal's mountaineering in the long term, the group's general secretary, Sherpa Pasang, said. After a memorial service at base camp on Tuesday, the Sherpas in the camp discussed their options, said guide Dorje Sherpa, who attended. At least 13 Sherpas were killed when a block of ice tore loose from the mountain and triggered a cascade that ripped through teams of guides hauling gear. "Some guides have already left and others will take about a week to pack up everything and go," said Gurung, whose brother is among those missing after an avalanche last Friday killed 13 Sherpas and left three missing, presumed dead. After the avalanche, the government quickly said it would pay the family of each Sherpa who died 40,000 rupees, or about $415. Those climbing Everest have long relied on Sherpas for everything from hauling gear to cooking food to high-altitude guiding. If the Sherpas boycott the season, many of the climbers would have to forfeit most or all of the money they have spent to go up Everest, which in some cases adds up to $90,000.  NEW DELHI — The government of Nepal has agreed to create a relief fund for Sherpa mountain climbers who are injured or killed in accidents and to make other concessions to the Sherpas, according to an official at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The announcement came a day after some Sherpa guides threatened to cancel expeditions up Mount Everest over the issue of adequate compensation for the families of the Sherpas who were killed last week in an avalanche. Ang Tshering, of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said about 400 foreign climbers from 39 expedition teams were on the mountain with an equal number of Sherpa guides, along with support staff such as cooks, cleaners and porters in the base camp. More than 4,000 climbers have reached the summit of Everest since 1953, when the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first to achieve the feat. Hundreds of people, both foreigners and Sherpas, have died trying to reach the summit, and about a quarter of the deaths occurred in avalanches, climbing officials say.
– After an Everest avalanche killed a reported 16 Sherpas, Nepal officials are coming around to the idea of coughing up some cash. Following two days of meetings with Sherpa representatives, the government says it will establish a relief fund for Sherpas wounded or killed in mountaineering accidents, the New York Times reports. The government will divert a portion of its receipts from Everest climbs to the relief fund. Elderly Sherpa climbers will receive pensions, while children have been promised educational funding, a culture ministry official tells the paper. Some Sherpas had threatened a strike after the avalanche, which killed 13 (three more are still missing), prompted a government pledge of $413 for each affected family. Following the meetings, the Nepal Mountaineering Association president, Ang Tshering Sherpa, said climbing would be "resumed." But many Sherpas say they won't be participating anymore this season, the AP reports. "It is just impossible for many of us to continue climbing. While there are three of our friends buried in the snow, I can't imagine stepping over them," says one. Hundreds of foreign would-be climbers are thus stuck at base camp, the Guardian notes. For Jon Krakauer's fascinating backstory on the Everest disaster, click here.