This post comes from R. Jesus Gomez, an Agriculture Engineer on the trek, part of the peruvian glaciology unit with Cesar Portocarrero. He works mainly in glacialogy research doing accumulation measurements of glaciers, mass balance, and the rate of glacial retreat. And was kind enough to submit this bi-lingual post of his experiences.

English (translation): Today we left very early from Gorak Shep, we had to make time to see the mountains before 7am.  So by 4:15, we were under way to Kala Pattar with beautiful, moonlit mountain views surrounding us in this marvelous place; once we arrived, we had a little time without clouds, however, it was fantastic to be there and to enjoy a spectacular view and the immensity of the these mountains; it is clear that we have a very large responsibility to the environment, and to care for it so that our children and their children will be able to enjoy and appreciate such marvelous landscapes.

Original Spanish: Hoy salimos muy temprano desde Gorak Shep, teniamos que ganar tiempo  ya que solo hasta las 7 am podiamos ver las montanas; asi que a las 4:15 ya estabamos rumbo a Kala Pattar a la luz de la luna podiamos ver todas las montanas que rodean este maravilloso lugar; y al llegar tuvimos poco tempo sin nubes, sin embargo fue fantastico estar alli y disfrutar de una vista espectacular y de la inmensidad de estas montanas; es claro que tenemos una responsabilidad muy grande con la naturaleza y es la cuidarla para que nuestros hijos y los hijos de nuestros hijos puedan tambien gozar y apreciar tan maravillosos parajes.

Looking down at Gorek Shep and Khumbu Glacier from Kala Pattar (Photo by: Brian Mark)

- R. Jesus Gomez

This morning, a group of about 8 of us from our expedition grabbed a sack lunch and headed off into the mist from Gorak Shep, where we are staying tonight, towards the Everest Base Camp.  Base Camp is only about 50 meters higher than Gorak Shep –about 5370 m — but the trek takes over 2 hours each way because the trail shifts uphill and downhill many times. Due to the onset of afternoon clouds and a bit of rain, snow and sleet, the trek itself was a bit dreary. But it was worthwhile to follow in Sir Edmund Hillary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s footsteps.

The sign to Everest Base Camp (Photo by James McKinney)

At this point, the climbing season has not yet begun in earnest, as the monsoons are now just ending. Thus, the trail was a bit deserted. At Base Camp, which is situated in the middle of the Khumbu Glacier, there are now only five teams getting ready to attempt the Everest summit.  One of the teams has already lost a man to a heart attack. God speed to all of them.

Everest Base Camp, off season (Photo by James McKinney)

Although we are on the slopes of Mt Everest, you can’t see the famous summit from base camp. Tomorrow we will hike to the summit of Kala Patar at 5500 meters which (we hope) will provide us views of Mt Everest and the entire Everest Valley, which have been so elusive because of the lingering monsoon clouds.

- James

On our second day, we hiked up into the hills surrounding the lake to evaluate the threats to the lake’s stability: earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, and huge icefalls. Several members of the local communities met us. They needed information about the lake, our research and the potential for disastrous flooding.  We discussed the threats to the downstream communities and the potential triggers of a huge flood, including the melting ice under the moraine and the possibility that lake water could seep through the hills surrounding the lake, which could cause the hills to collapse.

The Imja Glacier, melting and falling into the lake. (Photo by Daniel Byers)

Imja Lake was not formed until the early 1960’s.  In those early days, the Imja Glacier ended at the moraine itself.  As temperatures have risen, the Imja Glacier and the other glaciers that feed water to Imja Lake have been melting and receding, causing the lake to expand. In the future, if the glaciers continue to melt and recede, as expected, ice avalanches could fall into the lake, cause waves to burst over the moraine and flood downstream communities.   Since these glacial lakes are a relatively new phenomenon in the Himalayas, too little is known about these risks.  Even less is known about the potential solutions to lessen the risks. We are evaluating all these issues so that we can understand how much the lake will grow in the future, how the risk of floods may increase over time, and what can be done to diminish those risks.

Our friends over at the Guardian have been fielding a lot of questions about the environmental impact and carbon footprint of our expedition to Nepal. How can we justify the impact we ourselves are causing to the environment by going to these remote regions of the world?

The short answer is that the issues we’re investigating are simply too important to ignore. As our climate changes, lives and livelihoods are at stake, and our relatively small impact is for the purpose of preventing catastrophes. You can read their full explanation here.

We arrived at Imja Lake and quickly established our camp directly below the terminal moraine — the enormous mound of silt and rock that dams the waters of the lake.   If this moraine were to rupture, 10 million gallons of lake water would flood downstream, causing devastating loss of life in many downstream Sherpa communities and on the Mt. Everest Base Camp trail.

Imja Lake, foggy, icy and cold. (Photo by Daniel Byers)

As we hiked up the mountain from our camp, we watched the waterfall that spills water from the lake.  More troubling, water was seeping from the bottom of the moraine.  We became concerned about the ice beneath the moraine in the area between the lake and the waterfall.  That ice appears to be melting slowly and causing the ground to sink, creating a potentially dangerous situation whereby the lake could burst through the moraine.  There is very little information about this ice and the threat it poses, but scientists are concerned.  This must be studied soon.

The people of Dingboche bring in the harvest. (Photo by Daniel Byers)

We’ve arrived safely in Dingboche after 3 extremely fruitful days studying Imja lake. Around us, the Sherpa bring in their fall harvest.

Tonight the entire team is meeting for an open discussion of the findings – we’ll have some of their conclusions for you soon!

- Daniel

Here’s our first audio slideshow from Nepal! This is an interview with Ornella Puschiasis, a graduate student at University of Paris who has been living in Nepal for the last year conducting studies on water management in the Sherpa communities of the Khumbu. She talks about the convergence between water management and local religion in the Himalayas.

(Photos and recording by Ornella Puschiasis; edited by Sam Eilertsen.)

Involving the local community – the “stakeholders”, as Jorge puts it – is a major goal of this expedition, and today we had our first meeting with representatives from across the Khumbu.

A traditional Sherpa line dance. (Video still by Daniel Byers)

The KACC, or Khumbu Alpine Conservation Committee, welcomed us into their community meeting center with tea, kata scarves, and a beautiful traditional Sherpa song and dance.

The meeting brought up a major concern from the local community: they want to receive information from the researchers, to participate in planning and development and to understand the risks – but at this point most communities have been left out of the communication loop. So we’re trying to understand what information they need, and we’ve invited them to Imja lake to discuss what is understood, to provide more information, and to find out how they think the future looks.

Jorge Recharte of Peru received a kata scarf from the community. (Video Still by Daniel Byers)

There are expectations on both sides, expectations that could lead to tensions if not properly managed. The long history of scientists visiting Imja and providing no information to the local people has left them suspicious – and impatient. Dirk Hoffman:

“The community is expecting results – they’d be very happy if we said next month a tractor would come up and fix the lake… but scientists are cautious about giving opinions when they haven’t studied the lake… The best thing to do right now is to establish a communication structure so the communities and scientists can understand each other.”

Sonyam Mishi Sherpa and Alton continue the discussion. (Video Still by Daniel Byers)

Solutions must be community driven – it’s a mistake to promise projects in which locals have no part. Peru’s own successes with glacial lakes are testament to this – local communities putting pressure on the government until it conceded to have the problem managed. Still, we can help: as scientists we should see ourselves as being at the service of the community, and not the other way around.

That’s why we’ve invited a delegation from the KACC to come to Imja lake with us, for a direct exchange of local and scientific knowledge. As we pack our bags to head to the Imja base camp, I think we’re all hoping it’s a fruitful collaboration.

A member of the expedition team, Suzanne Goldenberg from The Guardian newspaper of the UK, has been publishing some fantastic posts on her own blog about the state of the Himalayas. She’s so far written about the trash that has accumulated in the mountains due to tourist activity, as well as the new ecological dangers that our team has discovered. You can read her entire blog series here.

We are now camped at around 5,000 meters altitude and taking day trips out higher to see the magnificent Imja Lake and the respective glacier that feeds it. With such a prolonged stay at altitude, it seems fitting to give a brief discussion on human physiology at high altitude.

Skipping rocks at a small glacial pool (photo by Daniel Byers)

Our medical kit (photo by James McKinney)

As you progress higher in altitude, your body begins to adapt to the decreased intake of oxygen it’s experiencing. A common misconception is that there is “less oxygen” at higher altitudes but in fact there is still 21% oxygen at any altitude, it is just that the barometric pressure decreases. This means that with each breath you are effectively inhaling less oxygen. In response to this your body increases its rate of breathing, circulatory efficiency, and how it manages oxygen intake.

The most important thing when going to altitude is acclimatization, giving your body the proper amount of time to implement its adaptive changes. When your body does not have proper time for acclimatization, forms of altitude sickness can develop from AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) to HACE and HAPE (High Altitude Cerebral/ Pulmonary Edema, respectively). Unfortunately, at this point in the trek, we have had one member of the expedition and three Sherpa assistants descend to lower altitudes due to varying minor forms of altitude illnesses. The descent was all they needed and are all making a good recovery at this point.

With one full day at Imja ahead of us and today’s successful meeting with the community behind us, all eyes are on the future and the ideas that await.

- James