How did the autumn climbing season become deadly in the Himalayas

Clear sky, calm winds and panoramic views of the Himalayan peaks, draped in snow – these are the autumn tourists of Mount Everest, fell in love.

But that seems to be changing.

Meteorologists say that the monsoon is now extending in the fall, which is traditionally the season of mountain tourism. And during this funny end of the monsoon queue, they record at least one episode of extreme rainfall almost every year in the last decade, with mountain weather becoming dangerous.

Last weekend Shoka Blizzard hit hundreds of tourists near the eastern face of Everest for days at freezing the temperatures at an altitude of over 4 900 m (16,000 feet).

Nearly 600 hikes were aimed at safety by the end of Tuesday, Chinese state media reported. One person died of hypothermia and altitude, but the rest were in good condition.

It was on the Tibetan side, but something similar was unfolded by Nepal, where a South Korean climber died on Merh Mount.

The world understood much later because the communication lines were affected by torrential rains and heavy snowfall. Officials believe that landslides and lightning floods in the country have killed about 60 people in the last week.

This is extremely unusual for October, “When we expect the sky to stay clear,” says Riten Gianbu Sherpa, a mountain guide, adding that in recent years Trekkers are increasingly being caught in an unexpected extreme time.

Given that this is the preferred season, frequent storms like this “impede our business with transitions and mountaineering,” he added.

The monsoon season in North India and Nepal usually lasts from June to mid -September, but no longer.

“Our data shows that in most years over the past decade, monsoon has been a duration until the second week of October, which is definitely a change,” said Archana Schreshta, Deputy Director -General at the Hydrology and Meteorology Department of Nepal.

The loving rain and the snow that wears the tail of the season, as it did this time on October 4 and 5 -d -shreshta, defined the model as “harmful rainfall for a short period of time”.

High in the Himalayas, such extreme weather means blizzards and snowstorms, which poses a huge risk of transitions, mountaineering and tourism.

It happened last weekend, when the weather changed quite suddenly – the winds began to howl, the temperatures fell and the visibility dropped dramatically.

The road that conveniently brought tourists to what had to be a stunning Pittop is now buried in snow and impossible to pass.

At Cho Oyu, another mountain that stands between China and Nepal, a team of climbers at the top of 8,201 mm retired temporarily when the snow fell continuously.

“Now they are returning after the heavy snowfall is over,” said expedition operator Mingma Sherpa, whose team has six members.

But for tourists trapped near Everest’s east face, the return was much tastier. Some Before the BBC They fought with hypothermia, although they were warm as they moved on the deep snow. Others said they did not sleep for fear of being buried in the snow, which fell so hard that they spent the greater part of their time clearing.

This could have ended tragically if it had not been well coordinated, with jackets and horses located to clear the snow.

Still, a hike that had been hiking on these mountains more than a dozen times, told the BBC that “he has never experienced time like this.”

A large guide is the greater amount of moisture in the air because of how the world warms up, scientists say.

This led to torrential rains for a short period of time, often after a prolonged dry spell – unlike the past, when monsoon showers spread evenly for four months.

“The time of this year has been changing every year in recent years, we cannot promise our customers anything,” says Pasang, a travel agent in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

“September, October, was a peak season with a nice time, but nowadays we see an extremely time and the temperature drops so fast.”

Meteorological experts say that monsoons in South Asia seem to have become stronger at times, as they are increasingly in contact with another meteorological system, Western interference.

It is a low pressure system that originates from the Mediterranean region and travels to the east – it carries cold air that brings rains and occasionally snow in northern India, Pakistan and Nepal.

But when it encounters air that is more warm and humid -which happens during the monsoon -the result can lead to a longer time.

To put it simply, Westerly Distrains can “effectively turbo loading monsoons,” said Akshai Deoras, a meteorological scientist at the University of Reading in the UK.

The reason why this happens is that these meteorological systems have traditionally been a winter phenomenon arriving between December and March in Northern India and the Himalayas.

But now, meteorologists say, they often arrive earlier, during Messon and Autumn.

The flow of rain and snow in eastern Nepal, where Everest is located, is also due to interference in October, staff said at the Nepal Meteorology Division.

They added that west interference had nourished a low -pressure system (part of the Messons’ caudal end) of the Bay of Bengal, pushing the clouds east when they actually had to move west.

Scientists have also found that in a warming world, the growing interaction between Western disturbances and monsoons produces another unusual result.

The hot air pushes the clouds higher, which means that these meteorological systems are already able to cross the Himalayas and reach Tibet and other areas that have not seen so much rain before.

A study published in Nature magazine in June notes that “the warming climate and the interaction between Western and Indian monsoon make the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to change the warming and moisturizing climate.”

The Tibetan Plateau has always been home to dry climate. And scientists say that warm, wet Tibet can mean unstable time and frequent snowstorms and blizzards.

“What is changing is the reliability of the models; we cannot assume that the conditions will be held the same from season to season,” says Logan Talbot, a major leader with Alpenglow expeditions, who takes climbers every year in the Tibetan side of Everest.

“This means flexible planning, real-time decision-making and experienced leadership (in the Himalayas) have become even more important.”