17 Sep 2007 - My name
is Ang Tshering Sherpa and I was born on
15 November 1953 in a picturesque Himalayan
village of Khumjung (3790m) in the Solu-Khumbu
district. It is one of the famous Sherpa
villages on the way to Mt Everest.
I spent most of my childhood in Khumjung
as a pupil of Sir Edmund Hillary’s first
school, and consequently I was fortunate
enough to be the one of the first batch
of graduates. I also studied Buddhist scripture
with my grandparents at the Tengboche monastery.
It has been more than 35 years that I have
been working in the mountain tourism sector.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1982, I established
Asian Trekking Pty. Ltd, which organizes
trekking and tour packages, mountain expeditions
in the Himalayas, including Everest, and
other activities related t mountain tourism.
Over the years, Asian Trekking has grown
into one of the biggest operators in Nepal
and Tibet. We are also the general sales
agent of China-Tibet Mountaineering Association.
Besides being the Chairman of Asian Trekking,
I am also the president of the Nepal Mountaineering
Association, as well as the Honorary Consul
of Belgium to Nepal.
Retreating glaciers
My personal and professional experiences
have been witness to vast changes in mountain
areas, especially in Everest region. Most
noticeable in my lifetime has been that
glaciers are rapidly retreating and new
glacial lakes have formed where there was
only ice and snow before.
When I was a child, I could easily cross
the Ngusumba Glacier near Mt. Cho Oyu with
our herd of yak. Today, the glacier has
been transformed into innumerable small
lakes. We also used to cross Lho La pass
(6026m), situated on the western ridge of
Mt Everest, on our way to trade in Tibet.
Today, all that remains of this huge ramp
of ice and snow are precarious ceracs clawing
desperately to the top of rocky cliffs.
In both cases it is no longer possible to
use this historic route.
Over the years, I have seen new glacial
lakes form, and their size has increased
dangerously. Before 1960, Imja Lake (5000m)
did not even exist. It first appeared in
1962 as a small pond. Now, the lake is almost
1.6-kilometres long and could burst at any
moment.
On 4 August 1985, another glacial lake,
called Dikcho Lake (4365m), burst resulting
in huge loss of live, property and infrastructure.
Imja Lake is twice the size of Dikcho Lake
and is located upstream of the famous Everest
trail which takes people the highest mountain
in the world. If we allow Imja Lake to burst
it would be the most shameful example of
our ignorance to our rapidly changing world.
A similar trend is seen on the Ngusumba
Glacier and others throughout the Himalayan
region. These small lakes will eventually
follow Imja Lake’s example and grow into
dangerously big lakes. I dread thinking
about the calamities and human loss when
these lakes burst.
Changing weather
Besides potential glacial lake outburst
floods, our mountaineering profession is
also facing problems due to unpredictable
weather condition. Just over a decade ago,
the appropriate climbing season for mountaineering
used to be September, October and November.
Today, it has shifted to late May and is
shifting later and later into the summer.
The weather has become unreliable — it snows
when it is time to rain, and rains when
it should snow. Because of this, there has
been increase in the rate of accidents during
mountaineering expeditions.
Another danger to our profession is the
rapid rate at which snow melts. Only a few
years ago, it used to take about two months
to melt a foot of snow, whereas nowadays
it takes only a couple of weeks to melt
twice as much snow. This phenomenon is very
obvious when we set up our camps. We constantly
find ourselves adjusting and relocating
our camp sites as the snow around our tents
melt. Another threat we find at camp sites
are the huge boulders scattered on the glaciers
which over a few weeks find themselves raised
on icy platforms, ready to tumble down on
to the tents below.
I don’t think local pollution and tourism
is the cause for this trend. I think it
is because of global warming.
Act now!
The leaders of the world should come up
with appropriate policies to deal with this.
However, it is our responsibility to act
now to address the issues, especially of
Imja Lake.
It is very important that water in the
lake is drained properly so that potential
danger is reduced. It is essential for us
to take immediate measures to reduce the
water pressure on the lake and take similarly
drastic measures in other critical lakes,
like we have done to secure Tsho-Rolpa Lake.
We also have to keep a cautious eye on new
glacier lakes that are forming.
Our biggest asset is our environment, and
Nepal’s natural beauty belongs not only
to us but to the entire world and the future
generations. I pride myself on teaching
these values to my own children but I fear
the day that they will have to tell their
own children that it was our generation
that did nothing to stop its destruction.
We Nepalese are doing as much as we can
to resolve these issues, but without international
recognition of the problems and support
to resolve them it is almost futile for
us to tackle such globally rooted issue.
Scientific Background:
The observation on the development of glaciers
and glacier lakes in the Everest region
by Ang Tshering Sherpa is noteworthy during
the time of his 35 years working experience
in mountaineering trekking expedition. I
agree with Mr. Sherpa’s remark that the
size of Imja glacier lake is increasing
since its development recorded in the year
1953.
The topographical map of 1953–1963 showed
that there were supra glacial lakes on the
surface of Imja Glacier and the area of
the lake was found to be 0.03km2 only. Field
investigation of Imja Glacier lake in 1999
showed the lake area has increased to roughly
0.75km2, with an average growth rate of
0.02km2 /year.
Analysing temperature recorded in the last
30 years, it is obvious that the temperature
is increasing rapidly. The average warming
in annual temperature between 1977 and 1994
was 0.06 ºC/yr (Shrestha et al. 1999).
The warming phenomenon is more obvious at
high altitude and is even more noticeable
in winter seasons.
Temperature data of Kathmandu (1940 to
1970) further shows that temperature was
in decreasing trend and thereafter noticed
increasing trend. It can be concluded that
the climatic variations in Nepal are very
much connected to global climatic changes.
This suggests that the Himalayas, being
high regions of the globe, are sensitive
to and affected by climate change.
(By Dr Om Bajracharya, Nepal' Department
of Hydrology and Meteorology)
