Nepal's 'ice doctors' risk all for sole Everest hopeful

A sign shows the way to Everest Base Camp high in the Khumbu Glacier, one day after an earthquake-triggered avalanche swept through parts of the base camp killing scores of people, on April 26, 2015. - AFP/File / Roberto Schmidt

Kathmandu (AFP) - Ang Kami Sherpa is one of Nepal's most experienced "ice doctors" -- the mountaineers who brave Mount Everest's treacherous Khumbu icefall to prepare it for the climbing season -- but even he is more nervous than usual this time round.

Sherpa is among a group of ice doctors who returned to the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain in August -- four months after a huge earthquake that triggered a deadly avalanche at its base camp.