Mount Everest is Suffering from Climate Change

Three days after reaching the summit of Mount Everest for the 20th time Apa Sherpa has described Mount Everest as more dangerous to climb thanks to climate change.

[social_buttons]Apa Sherpa, nicknamed the “super Sherpa” for the apparent ease with which he makes the climb, helping him to break his own record by making a 20th ascent of the world’s highest peak, dedicated his latest climb to raising awareness of the impact of climate change in the Himalayas.

“The snow along the slopes had melted, exposing the bare rocks underneath, which made it very difficult for us to walk up the slope as there was no snow to dig our crampons into,” he told AFP on Tuesday. “This has made the trail very dangerous for all climbers.”

Apa also said that he was personally disturbed by the visible changes on the mountain caused by rising temperatures.

His latest climb was also designed to clear up the tonnes of rubbish left on the mountain by previous expeditions to reach the summit. Apa and his team brought down 4.8 tonnes of rubbish from the mountain, and will display the refuse at a festival to be held in June in the Everest region to highlight the problems of global warming.

The climbing season is now at an end though as weather deteriorated quickly on Sunday as snow began to fall.

“We have come to the end of the Everest season,” mountaineering department official Tilak Pandey told AFP. “The spring season can often go on until the end of May, but the weather has got worse since Sunday. As far as we know, there are no more teams left to climb this season.”

The day before saw 13-year-old American Jordan Romero become the youngest person ever to climb Everest. 2,900 people are thought to have scaled the mountain since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first pair to conquer the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) eak in 1953.

Source: AFP

Image Source: thomaswanhoff

2 thoughts on “Mount Everest is Suffering from Climate Change”

  1. How can this be published on May 26th , 2010. When today is May 25th 2010? Hmmm ? So you need to changee thatt ..

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