Hillary Step

An uncropped view of the previous picture, looking up along the southern ridge line. The face of the snow-covered step is visible with two climbers on it. The face in shadow on the left is the South-West face, and in the light to the right is the top of the East / Kangshung face.

In this pre-2015 view of Mount Everest seen from the west, the high point is the summit; to its the right, the southeast ridge slopes down to the Hillary Step, then rises up to the South Summit.

The Hillary Step was a 40-foot (12 m) vertical rock face that sat 8,790 metres (28,839 ft) above sea level on the southeast ridge of Mount Everest. Some 30 metres (98 ft) vertically below the mountain's 8,849-metre (29,032 ft) summit, it lay halfway between the "South Summit" and topping out. It was the most technically difficult part of the typical Nepal-side Everest route, and the last real challenge before completing the final stage of the climb. The rock face was destroyed by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Located in the death zone, the Hillary Step was a Class 4 pitch. One expedition noted that climbing the Hillary Step was "strenuous" and offered little to no escape from unpredictable, rapidly changing weather.

Heavy snowfall could enable climbers to bypass Hillary using snow and ice climbing techniques.

The Hillary Step has claimed several climbers' lives. In 1997, mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev – known for saving the lives of climbers during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster – found the body of Bruce Herrod hanging from ropes at the base of the step; Herrod had died during a climb two weeks after the 1996 disaster.