The ice on Everest is melting at an alarming rate – and Nepal may soon have to relocate the base camp, where tourists begin their ascent to the world’s highest peak. The world’s highest extreme, which kills many people every year, is threatened by global warming and human activities: they are making the current site dangerous, a Kathmandu official said.
The Government of Nepal is considering relocating Everest Base Camp. The current base camp, located at an altitude of 5,364 meters on the Khumbu Glacier, where more than 1,500 people gather each season, is becoming dangerous due to the rapidly thinning glacier. Such data were announced to the local media by the director of the Nepal Department of Tourism Surya Prasad Upadhya. However, the exact decision on the transfer has not been made yet.
However, several studies show that glaciers near the summit of Everest are thinning at an alarming rate. In February, researchers from Nepal warned that the highest glacier on top of Everest could disappear by the middle of this century. The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has said that Everest has been losing a lot of ice since the late 1990s. It has been estimated that the ice in the South Cole Glacier, located at an altitude of 8020 meters, is thinning at a rate of almost two meters per year.
REFERENCE: Everest, also known as Jomolungma, is considered the highest mountain in the world – its height is over 8.8 thousand meters. It has the honorary title of “roof of the world” – and is the most extreme tourist attraction because, in the “evidence” years, more than 500 thousand tourists came to try to take this height – so the mountain can be considered one of the most visited attractions planets.