Everest Base Camp Set to Move Due to Climate Change

19th June 2022

The camp is on the Khumbu glacier that is melting rapidly. A new site needs to be found at a lower altitude where there is no year-round ice. Rising temperatures are hitting the glaciers in the Himalayas hard. NEW

The south base camp, the more popular of the two on the Nepalese side, has been in the same place for 70-years.

It situated on the Khumbu glacier which is melting rapidly.

This melt is being accelerated by carbon emissions and human activity.

Researchers say melt-water destabilises the glacier with climbers reporting that crevasses are increasingly appearing at base camp.

“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.

See here for the full story on 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 5,364m and sees around 1,500 people visit it in the climbing season.

Many are people who trek there.

The new camp will be 200m to 400m lower.

The Khumbu glacier, like many other glaciers in the Himalayas, is rapidly melting.

The segment close to base camp is thinning at a rate of 1m per year.

Here on PlanetSKI we recently reported on glaciers melting across the world, including the Himalayas.