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Climate crisis and sport: We’re climbing in T-shirts now, says Himalayan mountaineer

BySkalzang Rigzin
Jan 17, 2025 08:01 PM IST

It hurts to see crevasses in glaciers, and bare rock in place of ice. ‘If it’s too hot in the Himalayas, what else should we prepare for,’ asks Skalzang Rigzin.

The high mountains are a good indicator of how climate change is likely to affect us all in the years ahead.

Skalzang Rigzin, 43. PREMIUM
Skalzang Rigzin, 43.

I was born in Ladakh in 1981. I have climbed many peaks in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges since I was 16 years old. I recently summited Mount Everest, in 2024, without supplementary oxygen.

I want to tell you about the change I have seen.

Let me start by saying: There simply isn’t as much snow on the big mountains as there once was. The 6,000-metre behemoths Kang Yatse 1 and 2 and Dzo Jongo East, which are commercial climbing peaks in Ladakh, were relatively bare this season.

But what I saw on Kun, a 7,077-metre mountain in the Suru Valley near Kargil, was truly startling. This is a mountain I have climbed numerous times. My most recent climb was in August.

We usually establish base camp on Kun at 4,300 metres. Climbing, one encounters the Kun glacier at about 4,900 m, before reaching Camp 1 at 5,300 m. In the past, going from base camp to Camp 1 was a simple walk up the glacier. Now, there are multiple streams running down it. Some of the streams are like the narrow channels of flowing water that irrigate fields.

The glacier is melting.

Boulders have begun to jut out of what was once just ice and snow. In one spot, a crevasse had opened up, whose depth I couldn’t fathom. It hurt me to see the once-solid glacier now with chinks in its armour.

At about 5,000 metres, the heat was stifling. It was 11 am, and temperatures had reached 29 degrees Celsius. It isn’t normal to have temperatures of 29 degrees Celsius at this altitude.

A lot of us shed our layers one by one, until we were climbing in our T-shirts.

The altered conditions changed the way we climbed as well. Beyond Camp 1, there are two ice walls. I was leading the team and my job was to drill ice screws into this section, to secure the route for us all.

When I approached the ice wall this time, I could see that the ice wasn’t as solid. I could see bare rock at its base.

Rocks and boulders around it were loosening as well. What happens if climbers are nearby when, after centuries fixed in place, these boulders begin to fall?

We returned to base camp and decided to try again a few days later, but the weather didn’t change or normalise. There was more meltwater running down the glacier the next time we tried.

This felt like a different mountain.

If August is too hot in the Greater Himalayas, what else should we prepare ourselves for?

Already, with less snowfall, there have been serious water shortages in villages in Ladakh and Zanskar.

When I fly out of Leh now, I can see barren peaks instead of snow.

We need to do our bit. We need to do better.

Climate change is going to have a major impact on the future of mountain communities. We need to face this and work together on it.

(Skalzang Rigzin, 43, is a mountaineer who specialises in climbing without supplemental oxygen. He is also president of the Ladakh Mountain Guide Association)

(As told to Shail Desai)

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