Mount Everest’s south base camp is being moved further down the mountain because the area has become unsafe due to human activity and global warming.
Mount Everest sits on the border of Nepal and China and is home to two camps on opposite sides of its base. The south base camp, the more popular of the two on the Nepalese side, is currently sitting on the rapidly thinning Khumbu glacier.
CTV News Canada recounts the story of Arthur Prestidge who made his second trip to Everest this past spring. He camped at the south base camp near a rock retaining wall. “That collapsed because of melting ice,” he told CTV News.
Prestidge said that while at the base camp he was actually able to wash his clothes in a growing stream of meltwater. “That river was quite small initially when we got there. When we left, it was pretty big. Huge, in fact,” he said.
The base camp is used by up to 1,500 people in the spring climbing season, according to The BBC. Researchers are saying that meltwater has destabilized the Khumbu 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 5,364 meters (17, 598 feet). The new one will be 200 to 400 meters (656 to 1,312 feet) lower, Mr. Adhikari said.
Human activity plays a big role
Climate change isn’t the only contributing factor, though: the sheer number of people passing through the base camp adds to the destabilization. “For instance, we found that people urinate around 4,000 liters at the base camp every day,” Khimlal Gautam, a member of the committee that recommended the move, told the BBC.
“And the massive amount of fuels like kerosene and gas we burn there for cooking and warming will definitely have impacts on the glacier’s ice,” Gautam added.
But scientists say the whole Himalayas mountain range is warming up. A team from Western Washington University studied conditions there in 2009 and again in 2019.
“The mountains are probably 20 degrees warmer. Everything is melting much more quickly,” John All, director of Western Washington University’s Mountain Environments Research Institute, told CTV National News.
And the Khumbu glacier is one of many glaciers melting as the planet warms. This, in turn, makes climbing more dangerous, creating crevasses, and increasing the risks of avalanches.
For now, experts say the plan to move Mount Everest’s base camp is a sharp reminder that the whole world is facing an uphill climb against global warming.
