Climate Change's Deadly Effects on Mount Everest

Mount Everest has seen many deaths since 1922, but on April 18th, some of the deadliest accidents happened due to a powerful avalanche. "An April 18 avalanche claimed at least 12 lives, in what may be the single deadliest climbing event in the history of the world's tallest mountain (29,029 feet). The death toll may rise, because other climbers are still missing, according to the BBC."
""In 1989 when I first climbed Everest there was a lot of snow and ice, but now most of it has just become bare rock. That, as a result, is causing more rock falls, which is a danger to the climbers," said Apa Sherpa, a Nepali climber, as quoted in Discovery News. "Also, climbing is becoming more difficult, because when you are on a [snowy] mountain you can wear crampons, but it's very dangerous and very slippery to walk on bare rock with crampons," he added."
Scientists claim that some evidence does existence that links climate change to more severe avalanches. "A warming planet and changes in precipitation may increase the likelihood of certain types of avalanches at certain times of the year. A 2001 study from the Annals of Glaciology found that increases in temperature and precipitation could slightly decrease the risk of avalanches in mid-winter in France, but could significantly increase the risk of spring avalanches. Those findings were echoed in a 2013 report from the journal Applied Snow and Avalanche Research, which found that in Canada's Glacier National Park, an increase in rain (instead of snow) during the winter could result in greater instability in the snowpack, leading to more late-winter avalanches."

http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/climate-change-blame-mount-everest-avalanche-20140421

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. (Wikimedia/Shrimpo1967)

A night view of the Mount Everest range seen from Syangboche, a small Himalayan settlement on Dec. 4, 2009. (Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images)