Climate change is making climbing in the Himalayas more challenging, experts say

Climbing Mount Everest is one of the most difficult feats known to humankind, but the treacherous expedition is getting even more challenging due to climate change, according to experts.Warming temperatures around the globe are making both the topography of the glaciers in the Himalayas and the weather patterns mountaineers rely on to plan the timing of their journeys more unpredictable, climbing experts and climatologists told ABC News.

A record number of people died while attempting to climb Mount Everest this year. While the Nepalese government blamed climate change for the extraordinary number of deaths, experts say global warming may not be entirely responsible."The Khumbu Icefall, which is already really difficult to navigate, that becomes less reliable," said Shea, who was been researching the Himalayas since 2012.

Research in recent years has overwhelmingly shown that glaciers in the Himalayas are thinning, Joseph Shea, an associate professor of environmental geomatics at the University of Northern British Columbia, told ABC News. Climate change is roasting the Himalaya region, causing glaciers to retreat and permafrost to melt, according to a 2019 report authored by Shea.

Several of the routes that climbers use to gain access to higher peaks rely on the stability of glaciers, such as the Khumbu Icefall, located near the Everest base camp and used to trek up to Camp 1, Shea said.Researchers have drilled into the Khumbu Glacier near the Everest base camp and found that it is very close to the melting point," Duncan Quincey, a professor of glaciology at the University of Leeds, told ABC News.

Climate change can also exacerbate other risks like rockfall events, especially in the high mountain areas because many of the formations in the highest levels are held together by alpine permafrost, or frozen ground that then thaws, Shea said.Before the region began to warm rapidly, climbers could have more confidence in passing some of these treacherous areas because everything was "very much frozen" and much more stable, Quincey said.