In Mount Everest region, world's highest glaciers are melting, receding

In this photo essay, the editor of the Nepali Times, Kunda Dixit, describes the dramatic changes underway in the ice and snow of the Himalayan Mountains.

For many tourists trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp, the trip is an adventure of a lifetime. The thin clear air, stark landscape and ice-tipped peaks pierce the inky sky providing Instagram backdrops.

However, what is stunning scenery to tourists is for climate scientists an apocalyptic sight. They see dramatic evidence all around of a rapidly warming atmosphere.

Visitors returning to the Everest region after many years will notice changes in the landscape: large lakes where there were none; glacial ice replaced by ponds, boulders and sand; the snowline moving up the mountains; and glaciers that have receded and shrunk.

All these features are visible from ground level right from the start of the trek in Lukla. The banks of the Bhote Kosi, part of the river system that drains the slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet, still bear the scars of a deadly flash flood in 1985 that washed off a long section of the Everest Trail and the hydropower plant in the village of Thame. The flood was caused by an avalanche into the Dig Tso, a glacial lake.

Further up, near the village of Tengboche, the Imja Khola bears signs of another huge glacial lake outburst flood that thundered down the western flank of Ama Dablam in 1977. And below the formidable south face of Lhotse is Imja Tso, a lake 2 kilometers long that has formed and grown in the last 30 years. It does not exist on trekking maps from the 1980s. All these lakes were formed and enlarged as a result of global warming melting the ice.

Imja Tso, a glacial lake, did not exist on trekking maps 30 years ago. Today it is 2 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. Credit: Kunda Dixit/Nepali Times

"When I look at the Nepal Himalaya, we can see this is global climate change impact on fast-forward," said Dipak Gyawali of the Nepali Water Conservation Foundation and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology.

Green and blue meltpools on the North Ama Dablam Glacier, where the vanishing icefall has exposed the eroded bedrock below. Credit: Kunda Dixit/Nepali Times

The Lobuje Icefall is now a hanging glacier, having retreated above the cliff. Credit: Kunda Dixit/Nepali Times

The terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier looms 400 meters above Dughla, a rest stop for climbers. This is the debris bulldozed down from Mount Everest and surrounding peaks over millions of years and represents the extent of the glacier's advance in the last Ice Age. Today, the surface ice on the world's highest glacier is all but gone due to natural and anthropogenic warming.

Khumbu Glacier, the world's highest glacier, has retreated as the planet has warmed. Its lower portion is largely covered by debris. Credit: NASA Landsat 8 image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon

For a dramatic glimpse of how global warming is changing the Himalayan landscape, there is nothing like the aerial perspective. The barren beauty foretells of a time when this terrain will be stripped of much of what remains of its ice cover.

The Khumbu Icefall carries debris and ice from the Western Cwm to the Khumbu Glacier, 1,000 meters below. Credit: Kunda Dixit/Nepali Times

The Khumbu Icefall funnels ice from the Western Cwm below Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse to the glacier below. The ice here has receded at an average of 30 meters per year in the past 20 years, but it has also shrunk vertically, losing up to 50 meters in thickness. Everest Base Camp was at 5,330 meters when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest in 1953; today it is at 5,270 meters.

A map shows base camp and how a key climbing route up Mount Everest changed after a deadly avalanche in 2014. Credit: Gregory Leonard, with data by Digital Globe and Mark Fahey/USGS, via NASA

The glacier is also getting flatter: the darker debris makes the ice beneath melt faster near Base Camp, but the thicker layers of boulders and sand further down insulate the ice. Glaciologists say this flatter profile means the ice moves slower, leading to more ponding and more rapid melting of the ice underneath.

The velocity of the glacier is about 70 meters per year at Base Camp, and it slows to about 10 meters per year further below. It's zero at the terminus at 4,900 meters. This means the ice is decelerating as it is squeezed, and the pressure is being released by the melting of the ice mass.

Khumbu Glacier is receding at about 30 meters per year and shrinking: Base Camp is now 50 meters lower than when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest in 1953. Credit: Kunda Dixit/Nepali Times

Researchers monitoring the supraglacial ponds say their area has grown by 70 percent in the past 10 years alone. The ponds are fringed by ice cliffs and caves that accelerate the melting. The melted ice has carved an outflow channel through the left lateral moraine, so there is no large glacial lake on the Khumbu like elsewhere in Nepal.

Scientists conclude that the Khumbu Glacier is not about to vanish, and the Icefall is not going to turn into a waterfall any time soon. However, the permanent ice catchment of the glacier above 6,000 meters could start to deplete under a worst-case scenario of 5 degrees Celsius warming.

(Source: Inside Climate News)

Anshu Jamsenpa: The first woman to climb Mount Everest twice in 5 days

Most people don't make it to the top of the world once.

But mother-of-two Anshu Jamsenpa, aged 38, has done it five times, all from the South Col route on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest -- an incredible feat for any mountaineer.

This year, she broke a world record and made global headlines when she became the first woman to conquer the 29,028-feet-tall (8,848 meter) Himalayan giant twice in five days -- first on May 16, and then again on May 21.

Jamsenpa was born in Dirang, a remote mountain town in the north-west Indian district of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders Bhutan and Tibet

Astonishingly, this wasn't her first double ascent on a single trip.

In 2011, Jamsenpa summited the tallest mountain in the world on May 12 and May 21. She subsequently made a single summit in 2013.

Jamsenpa attributes her amazing achievements to the connection climbing Everest gives her to her faith.

"I always think that I am very close to god, I am getting a blessing," Jamsenpa tells CNN of her emotional state while on the mountain. "I only feel that whenever I am at the top."

Jamsenpa was born in Dirang, a remote mountain town in the north-west Indian district of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders Bhutan and Tibet.

Small-town life had its advantages. "You're surrounded by nature," remembers Jamsenpa, referring to nearby Bomdila where she moved to as a child. Yet she also says the area was lacking in exposure to the outside world and opportunities.

The daughter of an Indo Tibetan Border Police officer father and nurse mother, Jamsenpa had three older sisters and a younger brother. She says she always knew she was different.

"When I was small, my family used to watch TV in one room, and I would go to another room, sit quietly, draw the curtains and listen to music. I used to think differently."

While Jamsenpa grew up dreaming of becoming a journalist, she didn't attend university.

Rather, on her 16th birthday, she met future husband Tsering Wange, and fate steered her down a different path.

The week before at his family bakery, Wange had taken a cake order, requesting the text "Happy birthday Anshu Jampsenpa" written on it. He was curious about the girl with the unusual name.

"He called up my cousin (who had placed the order), and she invited him to my birthday party. He said: 'Yes, definitely -- I will come, and bring the cake myself.' So, that's how we met."

In 2000, when Jamsenpa was 21, they got married.

Business savvy
It was Wange's entrepreneurial spirit that nudged Jamsenpa towards Everest.

In Bomdila, he founded a travel agency which organizes trekking expeditions in Northeast India and Bhutan, called Himalayan Holidays.

After Jamsenpa fell pregnant with their second daughter, in 2003, she began working for her husband's travel business full-time.

"When I started doing the accounting, I realized he was running the business at a loss," she says. "He was a workaholic, he just had to work -- but he never maintained the accounts."

Despite being president of the All Arunachal Pradesh Mountaineering and Adventure Sports Association, Wange had "never had the opportunity" to do any climbing himself, but Jamsenpa was hands-on.

Jamsenpa trained for two years before her first attempt at climbing the Everest.

She started taking clients on trekking and river-crossing expeditions around the Himalayas.

During one expedition, a customer suggested that she train professionally.

"He told me: 'You have the courage, and your fitness (level) is also very good -- so why don't you go for a professional course?'

"After that, I immediately I went for an advanced adventure course. Once I started, I never looked back."

Record-breaking summits
In 2009, Jamsenpa had the idea to climb Everest, and began two years of intense training, attending courses aimed at those wanting to climb the world's highest mountain.

"I did all kinds of training -- running, gym, yoga, aerobics, hiking," she says. She also scaled numerous peaks, including Nepal Peak from Sikkim in 2010.

In 2011, joining a group of nine climbers, Jamsenpa headed to Everest. She says she didn't feel nervous about the trip, because she didn't mentally have time to worry.

"Everything happened at the last moment. I didn't have much time to prepare for this expedition, because I was working on (getting) sponsorship," she says.

"I reached base camp and couldn't register in my mind that I had actually planned to climb Everest."

The biggest challenge, she says, was leaving behind her two daughters, then aged 5 and 10 years old.
I reached base camp and couldn't register in my mind that I had actually planned to climb Everest.

"(Leaving them) was the hardest part ... What I decided was this was a time, in my absence, for them to bond with their father."

Jamsenpa made her attempt from the South Col, which sits on the Nepalese side, rather than the North Ridge, which begins within Tibetan borders. "I can't climb from the north side, because we have a visa problem with China. That is why I went from Nepal side," she explains.

Both the North and South Col routes house camps at varying heights, where climbers acclimatize and refuel. On the South Col, the route that Jamsenpa has taken on all five of her ascents, Base Camp is located at 17,600 feet (5,364 meters), and there are a further five camps until climbers make their bid for the top.

Realizing a dream
It was at high altitude that Jamsenpa made perhaps the boldest decision of her life: to try a double ascent of Everest.

The idea was born when Jamsenpa -- unsure of how she was doing -- sought repeated reassurance from her Sherpa guide.

"I was used to asking: 'Do you think I would be able to summit?'"

Despite her insecurities, she was acing the climb.

So much so that at Camp Three of her first ascent, 23,500 feet (7,163 meters) above sea level, her Sherpa raised the idea of a second ascent from Everest Base Camp.

Anshu Jamsenpa completed her second ascent to the top of Mount Everest this year on May 21.

She says he told her, "OK ma'am, not only can you climb once, but you can climb twice."

"The idea clicked from there," says Jamsenpa.

Ten days after her initial summit, she was back on top of Everest. Of all five summits she's made in her lifetime, Jamsenpa says the second one in 2011 was the easiest by far.

"The weather was very good, that made the climb easy," she remembers. "I reached the top five times, but that was the best weather I got. It was so beautiful. It was so clear. It made my climb very easy. It took six hours from South Col to summit."

Jamsenpa says the idea to do a double ascent came from her sherpa, during her very first climb

How did it feel to be on top of the world?

"I was totally blank (when up there) -- I didn't know how things looked," she says.

It was while descending she had a special moment.

"During my first summit, when I was coming back, the weather was bad so I wanted to descend quickly," she remembers.

"I was trekking down and suddenly saw a view of the South Col. I was shocked, because the view -- that picture -- I had seen it in my dreams."

Long way to the top
While her 2011 achievement was incredible, it didn't get her in the record books.

That honor went to Chhurim Sherpa, the Nepali climber who took the record as the first woman to climb Everest twice in 2012.

Jamsenpa claims that Chhurim Sherpa officially broke the record first due to politics: the Nepali authorities processed the paperwork of the homegrown climber before that of Jamsenpa, a foreigner.

Jamsenpa receives medals from the Nepalese government after her first double ascent -- on May 12 and 21, in 2011.

Whatever the reason, Chhurim had made her double ascent from Everest Base Camp inside a week -- faster than Jamsenpa's 2011 achievement.

Jamsenpa says she was slowed down that year, due to the time it took to process the paperwork for her unplanned second ascent.

Determined to beat Chhurim's record, Jamsenpa returned to Everest in 2013. "My plan was to do it in less than one week," she says.

However, Jamsenpa couldn't get permission from the Nepal government that year to summit twice, so settled for one summit, becoming the only female Indian mountaineer to climb the world's highest peak three times.

In 2014, she attempted another double ascent -- but the devastating avalanche in April that year, which claimed the lives of 16 sherpas, ended the climbing season.

In 2015, the Nepal earthquake thwarted her ambition.

Scaling the mountain
That Everest is a perilously dangerous mountain to scale has not escaped Jamsenpa.

Sixty-three sherpas and 111 climbers died on Everest between 1990 and 2016, according to the Himalaya Database.

"You're putting your life at risk for (Everest) each time," she acknowledges.

For Jamsenpa, the tragedy isn't an abstract idea. She's seen it firsthand, both on her second second summit earlier this year, and in 2011, when she came across dead bodies from previous expeditions.

I felt really heavy. It took me some time to overcome that.

"During my second summit this year, I saw someone who was dying -- they were in a critical condition. I felt bad, and then I felt like crying," she remembers.

"But then I motivated myself and said: 'No, this is not going to work. If you cry ... you lose your energy. You are not going to gain anything.'"

Reluctant to leave the climber, Jamsenpa asked her Sherpa what could be done. It was too late.

"I looked back at him, and he was already dead."

"After my summit, I felt really heavy. It took me some time to overcome that," she says.

Finally, success
Before setting out on her expedition this year, Anshu met with the Dalai Lamma in Guwahati, Assam, in India, to receive a blessing from the Buddhist leader.

She describes the experience as "the most beautiful moment in my whole life."

After taking 38 days to acclimatize at Base Camp (at 17,600 ft), on April 4 she began her main journey. On May 16 she unfurled the Indian flag atop Everest.

Three days later, she began her second climb.

On May 21, Jamsenpa safely achieved her dream: she broke the record for the fastest double ascent of Everest by a woman, in five days.

Jamsenpa meets India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi

It hadn't been easy.

"This year, I found it more difficult, because the weather was very bad," she says. "And there were so many people there -- there was traffic."

It didn't help that during her first summit this year she had issues with her oxygen mask: "I ended up losing a lot of energy."

Despite suffering from the effects of a malfunctioning oxygen mask, Jamsenpa managed to break her own record with her double ascent in 2017.

Her body was still feeling the effects of that record-breaking climb more than a month after her return.

"I didn't feel pain when I was up there, but I can feel the pain now -- when you get up, you can feel it. It's on my right leg, both knees and ankles."

Climbing Everest is not just physically challenging, it's a financial feat, too, with Jamsenpa paying $35,000 for each ascent in 2011. She raised the money by asking for sponsorship from the Indian government, and selling land she and Wange owned.

This year, her climb was supported by a spread of sponsors, including the State Bank of India, her profile as a climber in India helped her gain support.

Inspiring women
Jamsenpa has received accolades including Woman Achiever of the Year 2012 from the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and was in 2012 decorated with Arunachal Pradesh State Gold Medal.

But she has also faced criticism as a mother and wife for undertaking such a risky path.

"(People) used to tell me: 'Why are you wasting your money, time and energy?'" she says. "(They were) telling my husband: 'Why did you allow your wife to go? She might leave you!'"

Jamsenpa and her husband travel frequently --
although they still have a base in Bomdila, India

But Jamsenpa believes there are more people who are inspired by her achievements, than who are critical of them.

"So many people come to me and say, 'You've inspired us. How do we go?' They're asking for advice, not just on mountaineering -- also in other fields. They say: 'If you can climb mountains, why can't we build things?'"

Her own family has always been supportive.

"My daughters know what I'm doing. And they're very happy and proud. I told them: 'If something happened to me, you should be happy.'"

Jamsenpa would have died fulfilled and fearless.

(Source: CNN)

The mystery and secrets of Mansarovar Lake

There's always a mystery surrounding Lake Mansarovar near Mt Kailash. I just can't wait to visit this place when my little one grows up. Speaking Tree throws some light on the mystery surrounding this amazing lake:

Located at about a height of 4,590 metres, Mansarovar is the largest freshwater lake of the world situated at that high. The captivating scenery presented by this lake is incomparably superb. The origin of the word Mansarovar is from two roots namely manas and sarovar meaning mind and lake respectively. It is said in the scriptures that initially Brahma conceived this lake in his mind and later it go the visible manifestation and thus the name ensued.

Hinduism believes that initially Lord Brahma created this lake for meditation and he sat here in meditation for several ages that culminated in the beginning of the creation process. It is from this spot that the entire world was created. Earlier during that time, Mansarovar was even vaster and eventually it was reduced to its present size. This theory is supported by several religions and the concept of lake Tethys, which is the source of all creation points out to Mansarovar.

Very interestingly, this lake together with Mount Kailash rising adjacent to it are considered holy by several religions at once including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Bon.

Hinduism views Mount Kailash as the form of Lord Shiva and Mansarovar as the form of Mother Parvati, the male and female aspects of the supreme energy. The total circumferance of this lake is 80 km and it takes about three days to go around it. The depth is about 300 feet and stretches over an area of about 320 square kilometres.

It is believed that some celestial bodies and sapta rishis (the seven sages) descend on to this lake in the form of some visible light everyday during Brahmamuhurt time to take a holy dip and then leave back. Interesting and highly mysterious phenomenon has been conspicuously observed by a lot of people with reverence, wow and wonder. Legends in Buddhism state the Queen Maya was given a holy bath in the Mansarovar lake before she gave birth to Lord Buddha. Earlir there were eight famous Buddhist monasteries around this lake.

To the west of the Mansarovar lake, we can find yet another lake namely Raksas Tal. The two lakes are connected by Ganga Chhu channel. Mansarovar is a round shaped freshwater lake and Rakshas Tal is crescent shaped and is a salt water lake. This start contrast is inexplicable by science. In Buddhism, the two lakes are symbolically interpreted as the lightness and darkness respectively. Hinduism says Mansarovar is the god's lake and Rakshas tal is the devil's lake.

Yet another baffling fact even for scientists is that even during adverse weather conditions, the Mansarovar lake constantly remains calm and undisturbed. Whereas the much smaller crescent shaped Rakshas Tal is constantly turbulent regardless of the weather conditions. While Mansarovar presents an inviting appearance and bounteously gives away its water for bathing and drinking, no one even dares to come near the adjoining Rakshas Tal lake being scared by the very turbulent appearance of it. Even touching the water of the Rakshas Tal lake is strictly prohibited. Mansarovar's mysteries are unresolved and strongly attest the religious beliefs of people.