Tents of mountaineers are pictured at Everest base camp in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district on April 18, 2024 on the tenth anniversary of an avalance which killed 16 Nepali guides.KATHMANDU, Nepal — On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.
"Because of the effects of global warming, are becoming more visible as the snow cover thins," said Aditya Karki, a major in Nepal's army, who led the team of 12 military personnel and 18 climbers. Rakesh Gurung, from Nepal's tourism department, said two bodies had been preliminarily identified and authorities were awaiting "detailed tests" for the final confirmation.The body of George Mallory, the British climber who went missing during a 1924 attempt on the summit, was only found in 1999.
Fluorescent tents, discarded climbing equipment, empty gas canisters and even human excreta litter the well-trodden route to the summit."I feel that we have to give back to them, we have to remove the trash and bodies to clean the mountains." Nearly 2,000 children die every day from health problems linked to air pollution, which is now the second biggest risk factor...