[Reader-list] Everest melting above 8,000 metres?

[Nagraj Adve]

Anecdotal evidence - which I take seriously - of Everest ice melting at very
high altitiudes.
This is in keeping with the legendary Lonnie Thompson's study of ice cores,
of ice melting in Tibet at 20,000 feet, though this is even higher
Naga


 Climate change may leave Mount Everest ascent ice-free, say climbers

Mission launched to measure change in Himalayas as anecdotal evidence grows
of melting ice on mountain's southern approach

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   -  Suzanne Goldenberg<http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/suzannegoldenberg>
   - guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Saturday 24 September 2011
   19.16 BST
   - Article history<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/24/climate-change-mount-everest-melting#history-link-box>
    [image: Mount Everest]
   Climate change may soon leave Mount Everest a rock climb, rather than an
   ice climb, experts suggest. Photograph: Steve Satushek/Getty Images

   Climbers and custodians of Everest say that rapid climate
change<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change>could soon
make for an ice-free ascent of the world's tallest mountain.

   Their warning comes come amid a new international effort to gauge the
   effects of climate change in the Himalayas – and shield local people from
   potential hazards.

   A US-funded mission, led by the Mountain Institute, is meeting in
   Kathmandu to try to find practical solutions to the threat of catastrophic
   high-altitude flooding from lakes forming at the foot of melting glaciers.

   Scientists acknowledge they have yet to form a complete picture of the
   changes under way in the high Himalayas. The task of offering a definitive
   scientific account of the extent of melting is daunting – and not just
   because the area is so vast and inaccessible.

   Scientists are still working to recover from a PR disaster early last
   year when it emerged that a United Nations report on climate change had
   claimed – wrongly – that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035.

   Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins went through a similar exercise in
   humiliation when its new *Times Atlas* claimed up to 15% ice loss had
   taken place in Greenland – a finding immediately
disputed<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/times-atlas-reviews-greenland-map?newsfeed=true>by
scientists as an exaggeration.

   But growing anecdotal evidence, from climbers and local people, suggests
   climate change is making a strong impact even well above the 8,000m line,
   with signs of melting ice on the southern approach to Everest.

   "When I climbed Mount Everest
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/everest>last year I climbed the
majority of ice without crampons because there was
   so much bare rock," said John All, an expert on
Nepal<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nepal>glaciers from the
University of Western Kentucky. "In the past that would
   have been suicide because there was so much ice."

   He said the terrain he crossed was very different from the landscapes
   described by earlier generations of climbers. Historic photographs of the
   Everest region also showed a longer and deeper covering of ice.

   All added: "I wonder when Mount Everest will finally become a rock climb
   rather than an ice climb."

   Everest Base Camp, which occupies a high rocky plateau next to the Khumbu
   glacier, has undergone similar changes, said Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, who
   has overseen rubbish collection at the site for the past few years.

   The summer monsoon months brought several deep new crevasses in the black
   ice beneath the rocks, Tenzing said. "Everything is changing with the
   glaciers."