When A Tipping Point Breaks

Environments are stable until they aren't. A recent event at Mount Manaslu in Nepal is one such example of a 'tipping point' having been crossed.

Manaslu is one of the fourteen 8000 meter peaks which represent the goals of world class mountaineers to summit. In a Sherpa captured video, a hanging glacier (serac) disintegrated above the Manaslu basecamp sitting beside the trekking circuit around the massif. The serac had become stressed to the point at which the gigantic block of ice simply collapsed.

Whether this glacial event can be attributable to climate change needs to be determined. However, temperatures in South Asia have risen substantially with major floods occurring in the mountain valleys of Pakistan recently. While not at the same high elevations above 8000 meters in Nepal, environmental conditions have been amplified by increased atmospheric warming regionally.

It would not have been a wise time to attempt to a summit bid on Manaslu and likely elsewhere in 'high hills'. WHB

WHB

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