Nepal To Move Everest Base Camp From Melting Glacier (bbc.com) 17
Nepal is preparing to move its Everest base camp because global warming and human activity are making it unsafe. From a report: The camp, used by up to 1,500 people in the spring climbing season, is situated on the rapidly thinning Khumbu glacier. A new site is to be found at a lower altitude, where there is no year-round ice, an official told the BBC. Researchers say melt-water destabilises the glacier, and climbers say crevasses are increasingly appearing at base camp while they sleep. "We are now preparing for the relocation and we will soon begin consultation with all stakeholders," Taranath Adhikari, director general of Nepal's tourism department, told the BBC. "It is basically about adapting to the changes we are seeing at the base camp and it has become essential for the sustainability of the mountaineering business itself."
The camp currently sits at an altitude of 5,364m. The new one will be 200m to 400m lower, Mr Adhikari said. The plans follow the recommendations of a committee formed by Nepal's government to facilitate and monitor mountaineering in the Everest region. The Khumbu glacier, like many other glaciers in the Himalayas, is rapidly melting and thinning in the wake of global warming, scientists have found. A study by researchers from Leeds University in 2018 showed that the segment close to base camp was thinning at a rate of 1m per year. Most of the glacier is covered by rocky debris, but there are also areas of exposed ice, called ice cliffs, and it is the melting of the ice cliffs that most destabilises the glacier, one of the researchers, Scott Watson, told the BBC.
The camp currently sits at an altitude of 5,364m. The new one will be 200m to 400m lower, Mr Adhikari said. The plans follow the recommendations of a committee formed by Nepal's government to facilitate and monitor mountaineering in the Everest region. The Khumbu glacier, like many other glaciers in the Himalayas, is rapidly melting and thinning in the wake of global warming, scientists have found. A study by researchers from Leeds University in 2018 showed that the segment close to base camp was thinning at a rate of 1m per year. Most of the glacier is covered by rocky debris, but there are also areas of exposed ice, called ice cliffs, and it is the melting of the ice cliffs that most destabilises the glacier, one of the researchers, Scott Watson, told the BBC.
Makes sense! (Score:1)
If it is melting it will not be there for much longer.
Common sense prevails.
So Everest is now an amusement park (Score:2)
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It's not just an amusement park. They charge like Disney.
Climbers attempting the feat spend between US $30,000 and $150,000, and like you intimated, the more sherpas and equipment you can hire, the better your chances of success.
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Sometimes, I wonder if they should put in a ski lift to the summit, and call it done. Bonus points for some cable that one can clip cadavers to that can get them down, so they don't reside on the mountain indefinitely, like Green Boots did.
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It's easy to make fun of the rich folks who climb Everest, and yeah, it's not "real" mountaineering, and the Sherpas do most of the work. With all that said... is it really such a awful thing for rich folks to be doing?
No matter how many Sherpas you bring with you, it's still a feat of endurance-- comparable at least to finishing a marathon-- and it still requires some minimal amount of competence and outdoorsmanship. It instills an awareness of and appreciation for the environment. And obviously, it pum
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It is too dangerous to climb, so they move it. Isnâ(TM)t that the point of climbing a mountain, that there is risk.
I think that climbing mountains is a frivolous waste of money and recklessly risky.
Nevertheless, if I were to die trying to climb a mountain, I'd rather die up on the mountain proper and not at the stupid base camp.
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I think that climbing mountains is a frivolous waste of money
So it's like computer gaming?
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Jeez dude, if you're spending that kind of money on Steam sales you need to slow down.
While they're at it ... (Score:2)
Could they also move the summit to a lower and more easily accessible location?
Facilitate the sustainability? (Score:2)
From the article linked:
Melting? Ugh! (Score:2)
Gonna be quite the mess when all that trash (to include tons of feces) finally wash down into the lowlands.
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It's also going to be pretty unpleasant when the last 50 years of shit start to approach the melting snout of the glacier. Particularly if that is your drinking the water supply. (I'll grant that the Hillary Foundation has probably been working on drinking water