Climate Change through the Eyes of Himalayan Mountaineers

[ScienceRocks]

Climate Change through the Eyes of Himalayan Mountaineers
Jul 18, 2011; 12:23 PM ET

Veteran mountaineers in the Himalayan region of Asia are experiencing first hand the likely impacts of climate change on this huge mountain range.

Location of the Himalayas

The biggest changes that these mountaineers have seen is the formation of huge glacial lakes, retreating glaciers and less snow, which has made climbing peaks such as Mt. Everest that much more challenging.

The Himalayas.

Here are some of the first hand accounts, via The Hindu news article.......

Climate change has been most visible to climbers like Apa Sherpa who have noticed big changes since 2008. "Now the snow has reduced and it has become very dangerous especially on the Hilary Step, before the Everest summit. When you wear crampons for the snow and suddenly encounter rock, it gets very slippery," he says. The rocky patch is increasing over the years.

Since 2007 the ice pinnacles in the Everest area have reduced in height and at the advanced base camp, there has been flowing water in the climbing season, a clear indication that ice is melting. "You no longer have to melt ice to drink water," says Dawa Steven Sherpa.

Motup Chewang of Rimo Expeditions said major changes had swept the Karakoram Range as well in the last 20-30 years. The glaciers were retreating much faster and huge glacial lakes were forming there.

For climbers, the window or clear period for climbing is coming down, especially on Mt. Everest and even trails in many places are broken.

There are few places mountaineer Harish Kapadia has not gone to and he has been observing changes in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions. "The last five years have been marked by receding glaciers and even walking is difficult. The uncertainty for climbers and trekkers is increasing in the Himalayan region."

AccuWeather.com - Climate Change | Climate Change through the Eyes of Himalayan Mountaineers

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Since some here can't trust the science or the scientist---How about the people that spend their life's climbing these mountains?

 

[Old Rocks]

And in the Andes;

http://library.athabascau.ca/drr/download.php?filename=mais/Athabasca_Final_Project-_MAIS_701.pdf

 

[Old Rocks]

Montana's melting glaciers: The poster-child for climate change - CNN

As recently as 100 years ago, Montana's Glacier National Park had more than 150 glaciers throughout its more than one million acres.

In 2005 only 27 remained. Today the total is down to a just 25 and those that are left are mere remnants of their former frozen selves.

With warmer temperatures and changes to the water cycle, scientists predict Glacier National Park will be glacier-free by 2030.

Daniel Fagre, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) ecologist who works at the national park believes that even those estimates are too conservative and says the park's namesakes will be gone about ten years ahead of their predicted demise.

 

[Old Rocks]

Alps

'Yesterday, I came back from leading a climb on the Matterhorn in Switzerland. We used the Hornli ridge, the famous route first climbed in 1865. I go there every summer. These well-used routes are becoming dangerous and several have been shut. The permafrost, which has held the rock together for hundreds or thousands of years, is melting. It melts during the day and freezes at night and this is causing the rock to crumble. This is happening at higher altitudes every year — it's moving up the mountains.'

Sebastian Montaz lives in Saint Gervais, a village in the Chamonix region of France. A mountain guide and ski instructor, he grew up in the French Alps but guides climbers and skiers across the Alpine region.

'Mountains normally change slowly. But here in the Alps we see the changes almost as each season changes. It has altered dramatically since I was a boy and who knows what the Alps will be when my daughter is grown up.

 

[Old Rocks]

The worlds mountain ranges are like the Arctic. They respond far more rapidly than the rest of the land to changes in temperatures and moisture. And, as in the Artic, we are now seeing major changes in the mountain ranges of the world. Changes that will have major affects on the agriculture that we all depend on.