Global warming is 'making Mount Everest more dangerous to climb'
Mount Everest is becoming increasingly dangerous to climb because global warming is melting glacier ice along its slopes, according to a Nepalese Sherpa who has conquered the world’s highest summit 20 times.
Mount Everest is the highest peak in the world standing at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) Photo: REUTERS
Rising temperatures have melted much of the ice on the steep trail to the summit and climbers are struggling to get traction on the exposed rock surface, according to the 49-year-old Sherpa, known only as Apa.
The melting ice has also exposed deep crevasses which climbers could fall into, and experts have warned that people scaling the mountain risk being swept away by “outburst floods” from rising volumes of glacial meltwater.
Apa, who grew up in the foothills to Mount Everest, reached the 29,035-foot (8,850-metre) summit on Saturday for the 20th time, breaking his own previous world record for 19 ascents.
After returning to Kathmandu on Tuesday, he said: "The rising temperature on the mountains has melted much ice and snow on the trail to the summit. It is difficult for climbers to use their crampons on the rocky surfaces.”
He said there was hardly any exposed rock on the trail to the summit when he first climbed Everest in 1989, but now the slopes are dotted with bare rocks.
The world’s highest mountain is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination, with a procession of novice climbers scaling the summit with the help of highly expert Sherpas like Apa.
Bonita Norris, a 22-year-old media-studies graduate from Berkshire, recently became the youngest British woman ever to conquer Everest despite admitting she had never even climbed Mount Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales, before setting her sights on the world’s highest summit.
But experts have warned that many amateur climbers may not be aware of the risks they face in tackling Everest.
A report by scientists at University College London said the Himalayan glaciers are retreating faster than many others around the world, at rates ranging from 10 to 60 metres per year.
Professor Steve Edwards, an earth scientist who coauthored the report, titled The Waters of the Third Pole, said the effects of glacial melting posed a real risk to climbers.
“The general trend shows that the Himalayan glaciers as a whole are melting faster than many others. It is probably the fastest rate of melting in the world,” he said.
“The result is that in the summer months there is going to be a lot of slush on the ice fields. There is also the risk of glacial outburst floods, where the meltwater tops the bank of sediment left behind by the glacier during a period of intense melting and crashes down the river valley, destroying everything in its path.”
The United Nations climate change panel warned in 2007 that the Himalayan glaciers were melting so fast that they would almost completely disappear by 2035.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted that the claim was an exaggeration earlier this year, but melting ice in the mountain range remains a source of grave concern.
Lewis Gordon Pugh, the British environmentalist, swam 1km across a lake of glacial meltwater on Mount Everest at the weekend to highlight the speed at which the ice is melting.
After returning to Kathmandu on Tuesday, he said: "The rising temperature on the mountains has melted much ice and snow on the trail to the summit. It is difficult for climbers to use their crampons on the rocky surfaces.”
He said there was hardly any exposed rock on the trail to the summit when he first climbed Everest in 1989, but now the slopes are dotted with bare rocks.
The world’s highest mountain is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination, with a procession of novice climbers scaling the summit with the help of highly expert Sherpas like Apa.
Bonita Norris, a 22-year-old media-studies graduate from Berkshire, recently became the youngest British woman ever to conquer Everest despite admitting she had never even climbed Mount Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales, before setting her sights on the world’s highest summit.
But experts have warned that many amateur climbers may not be aware of the risks they face in tackling Everest.
A report by scientists at University College London said the Himalayan glaciers are retreating faster than many others around the world, at rates ranging from 10 to 60 metres per year.
Professor Steve Edwards, an earth scientist who coauthored the report, titled The Waters of the Third Pole, said the effects of glacial melting posed a real risk to climbers.
“The general trend shows that the Himalayan glaciers as a whole are melting faster than many others. It is probably the fastest rate of melting in the world,” he said.
“The result is that in the summer months there is going to be a lot of slush on the ice fields. There is also the risk of glacial outburst floods, where the meltwater tops the bank of sediment left behind by the glacier during a period of intense melting and crashes down the river valley, destroying everything in its path.”
The United Nations climate change panel warned in 2007 that the Himalayan glaciers were melting so fast that they would almost completely disappear by 2035.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted that the claim was an exaggeration earlier this year, but melting ice in the mountain range remains a source of grave concern.
Lewis Gordon Pugh, the British environmentalist, swam 1km across a lake of glacial meltwater on Mount Everest at the weekend to highlight the speed at which the ice is melting.
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