An Everest Base Camp trek is, for many, the challenge of a lifetime and the culmination of much time spent in training and preparation. Scientists maintain however, that Everest is changing – better get that climb in quick before the mountain melts away…

The Mighty Mountain

The world’s highest mountain, Everest stands tall at a recorded height of 8,848 metres, though those doing the Everest Base Camp trek will only reach an altitude of around 5,000 metres. There are suggestions that with the shifting of the tectonic plates on which the Himalayas lie, the entire mountain range is being pushed upwards at a rate of between 4 and 10 centimetres a year, making the mountain even mightier with every year that goes by. The first expeditions attempting to summit Everest all had one common denominator – George Mallory. He was a British climber who was determined to climb the mountain simply “because it’s there.” Mallory sadly never returned from his third attempt to climb Everest, and the first successful trip to the summit was made by Hillary and Norgay in 1953. However, relics from Mallory’s attempts remain today, and are in fact proving to be very useful to scientists studying the way the mountain is changing.

Everest on Candid Camera

Many people preparing for an Everest Base Camp trek look at photos remaining from Mallory’s climbs for inspiration and motivation. However, they have now proved useful for other purposes too, with scientists using them to compare the mountain today with the mountain many years ago. One photo taken in 1921 clearly shows a significantly wide S-shaped mass of ice sweeping down the mountain side. This year, the Asia Society sent mountaineer David Breashears to exactly the same spot where Mallory’s photo was taken in order to gauge the extent of ice loss. The society was however, unprepared for the dramatic results they found whilst comparing the two photos.

Changing Faces of the Mountain

Comparisons between Mallory’s and Breashears’ pictures show that the once prominent ice mass has dwindled significantly in the 89 years between photographs, suggesting that Everest’s main Rongbuk Glacier is shrinking over time. The Himalaya mountain range is home to an incredibly large sub-polar ice reserve, and water from the glaciers on the mountain sides act as a supply for many of the region’s largest rivers such as the Ganges, the Yangtze, the Mekong and several more, upon which many depend for their livelihood. The current melting rate shown by these photographs suggests that by the middle of the present century, the Himalayan glaciers may well have shrunk to a point that will severely affect the flow into the rivers. The difference between the two photographs is certainly very noticeable, suggesting that if you were to do an Everest Base Camp trek today, it could possibly look very different to one you would do at the end of the century.

Though the mountain is certainly not going anywhere and will be waiting for any who want to take part in an Everest Base Camp trek for many, many years to come, it seems that its appearance may well change much sooner should the current melting rate of the glaciers continue.

Author Bio: Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the classic trek to Everest Base Camp for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.

Category: Travel
Keywords: Everest Base Camp Trek