With each passing year the situation gets worse. A study published in the journal Nature Portfolio Journal Climate and Atmospheric Research confirms it. A part of Everest is melting very fast. It is the South Col glacier, which climbers cross on their way to the summit. It could disappear completely by the middle of this century.
It brought together 34 international and Nepalese scientists. Included biological sampling and creation of a high-resolution map.

Early demise
The expedition leader was Paul Mayewski. “It was the most complete scientific experiment ever conducted on the south face of Everest,” he says.
A cylindrical chunk of ice was extracted from the glacier, 1000 meters higher than that of the previous highest ice core ever collected. The results were surprising. The surface ice was approximately 2000 years old. All the ice deposited on the glacier in the last two millennia had disappeared.
Most of this loss has occurred since the 1990s. What will happen if that rate of ice loss continues? It will probably disappear in a very few decades.
Many of the glaciers in and around the Everest area have changed quite a bit. The loss of ice is likely to be greatly accelerated by a process called sublimation. Snow and ice evaporate without passing through a liquid water phase. Sublimation is common in cold, dry climates, especially at high altitudes. If fresh snow is lost, the ice itself is darker and absorbs more solar radiation. Melting and sublimation are more intense and ice loss increases.

Warning signal
There are times, even in the middle of winter, when warm air masses reach the North Pole. Thus, temperatures rise above freezing point. During the summer, there are times when the entire surface of the Greenland ice sheet is melting.
“And now, Everest is melting very fast, and we have the evidence. The highest glacier on the mountain could soon disappear. So yes, it’s a real wake-up call,” they indicated.