What changes on Everest with global warming | Environment

There’s a reason mountaineers on the Mount Everest call the passage through the Khumbu Icefall from the western slope “hall of death“. A powerful glacier hangs like a sword of Damocles, threatening the route and making climbing complicated.

Accidents there are frequent. In April 18, 2014an ice avalanche began at the site. Sixteen Nepali mountaineerswhich transported equipment for commercial expeditions to the high fields, died in the accident.

Since then, the Icefall Doctors – a group of Sherpas specializing in the Khumbu Icefall – have been trying to place the route to Everest’s summit as far away from the western slope as possible. However, this spring, the climate change forced them back to the ‘hall of death’.

There were simply no alternatives. Two attempts to find a less risky route failed. O winter without snow in Nepal left unstable ice towers and snow bridges in the ice maze. Furthermore, cracks were formed so wide that they could not be crossed with ladders.

Every year, the Icefall Doctors determine the route through the dangerous icefall, mark it with ropes, and keep it visible throughout the climbing season, until the end of May. Only when the route to the Camp Twoat 6,400 meters, is completely delimited, commercial teams can start climbing.

Is race against time. This year, about ten days later than expected, the eight Sherpas finally announced that they were ready. However, the Icefall Doctors warned that there was at least five dangerous points, which should be overcome as quickly as possible. It sounded like a description of Russian roulette.

Last winter, two passes located more than 5,800 meters high in the Everest region were even completely snow free. “This is worrying,” says Nepalese glaciologist Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa.

“The data shows that the number of snow days, amount and snow cover are decreasing – the trend is negative. These ‘bare’ passes and mountains illustrate what is happening,” says Sherpa.

Glaciers are melting at an increasing rate, becoming thinner and smaller. glacial lakes larger and larger ones are forming and threaten to burst. This happened this week in Manaslu, also a mountain in the world with more than 8 thousand meters high. The subsequent avalanche caused only material damage.

Pools of meltwater are also forming in the valley at the foot of Everest. To the summit, the 8,849 meters, snow and ice are retreating. The result is a greater risk of falling rocks and, because it’s getting hotter, a greater chance of avalanches. “Many people lose their lives in avalanches. The mountain is becoming increasingly dynamic”, warns Sherpa.

“The current difficulties in the Khumbu Icefall in reaching the highest camps could have an impact on the entire season and could be the harbinger of a major disaster on Everest,” fears 36-year-old German mountaineer Norrdine Nouar.

He has just climbed – without bottled oxygen – the 8,091-meter Annapurna in western Nepal, his second climb above 8,000 meters. Now he wants to try to climb the world’s highest mountain without a breathing mask.

“I really hope that we don’t break last year’s sad record for deaths on Everest again,” Nouar told a specialized blog. At spring 2023, 18 people – six Nepalese and 12 commercial team clients – lost their lives on Mount Everest, the highest number in a single season. However, the Nepalese government has also never issued so many permits for Everest: 478. This year, the number of permits is 20% lower compared to the same time in 2023.

This may indicate a decline in interest in Everest – or not. It may be that many would-be Everest climbers are now pre-acclimatizing at home in hypoxic tents and therefore arriving later. Or is it still happening because the highest mountain in the world can, for first time in four yearscan also be climbed from the north side, in Tibet.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese authorities had closed the mountains of Tibet to foreign expeditions. Teams hoping to climb Everest from the north this spring are still awaiting their Tibet entry permits. A border should only be opened after May 7th. The Everest season on the north side ends on June 1st. Chinese authorities have limited the number of permits to 300. Climbing without bottled oxygen is prohibited above an altitude of 7,000 meters.

On the southern side of Nepal there are also new regulations. All mountaineers are required to have electronic tracking chips sewn into their jackets. The aim is to facilitate searches if someone goes missing.

This system has proven useful in avalanche searches in the Alps, but experts doubt it can improve safety in the Mount Everest summit area. According to Lukas Furtenbach, head of Austrian expedition organizer Furtenbach Adventures, the range of the system is significantly reduced in the case of ice avalanches. “It would be better if guides didn’t leave their clients alone,” says Furtenbach. “Then the problem would be solved.”

This year it is also mandatory, for the first time, for mountaineers to carry excrement bags with you on the climb, so that they can be used and taken back. Poop bags were developed especially for outdoor use and can be perfectly closed. Its interior is coated with a mixture of gelling agents, enzymes and odor neutralizing substances. This ensures that the feces are sealed in the bag and the odor is reduced.

The Nepalese environmental protection organization Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), which is responsible for managing Everest Base Camp and also employs the Icefall Doctors, is tasked with ensuring compliance with the rule.

The SPCC estimates that between Camp One, at 6,100 meters, and Camp Four, on the South Col, at just under 8,000 meters, there is a total of about 3 tons of human excrement – half of that at the South Col, the last camp before the summit of Mount Everest. As the snow cover is increasingly disappearing, the excrement smells bad, threatening to turn the South Col into a “feces hall.”

Mount Everest base camp closed due to accumulation of rubbish