Mountaineer: ‘Tenzing biopic made me wonder what he would think if he could return to the mountain today’

Seventy-three years ago, Tenzing Norgay stood on top of Everest, known as Chomolungma in Tibetan, which roughly translates as “Goddess Mother of the World.”

A new biopic of Norgay’s life and his first ascent of the highest mountain in the world with Edmund Hillary portrays his humility and intimate bond with nature and the mountains beautifully and with compassion. In some ways, however, the most spectacular stars of the film are the majestic and awe-inspiring mountain landscapes captured by the sweeping cinematography.

I am a mountaineer and glaciologist by profession and have an affinity for wild, open and vertiginous landscapes. The film made me wonder what Norgay would think if he could return to the mountain today. How have things changed in the intervening years, and what does that mean for the future of mountaineering and alpine climbing?

Everest Base Camp (EBC) is a very different scene now. Instead of a single, admittedly gargantuan, expedition each year, the Nepalese government now issues many permits and, at peak season, base camp is a sea of tents, people and too often trash left behind by climbers.

That’s quite sad and a far cry from what the 1953 expedition would have experienced. The conditions and health of the Khumbu Glacier, which provides access to EBC and the start of the real climbing, are also very different.

A recent study used declassified spy satellite imagery to compare the loss of ice mass across the Himalayas between the 1970s and the 2000s. The researchers found that the rate of loss had doubled in the period 2000–2016 compared with the earlier period. They estimated the rate of thinning at the altitude of EBC was about 0.8 meters (2.6 feet) per year.

The glacier is around 150 meters (490 feet) thick in the region below base camp. At the rate of thinning observed a decade ago, it would lose about a third of its volume in 73 years, exposing more and more loose and unstable rock.

However, my own work with colleagues indicates that the acceleration in mass loss across the Himalayas has continued since 2016 to reach even higher rates. Google Earth imagery of the Khumbu Glacier from 2021 shows extensive development of lakes on the ice surface: a sure sign of a glacier in decline. The lakes absorb more solar radiation than the surrounding ice and accelerate melting.

There are, of course, no satellite images from 1953, but plenty of analog photographs were taken, and the changes are clear to see: Now it’s more chaotic, more broken and more covered in debris.

The recent catastrophic flood near the Nepal–Tibet border has been linked to increasing regional temperatures, weakening permafrost (frozen ground that thaws with warming) and greater glacier melt rates.

In the European Alps, the situation feels even more dire. In just two years, 2022–2023, glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost 10% of their volume. If that rate were sustained, they would be gone in 20 years’ time.

This year, mountain huts closed and guides stopped taking clients up the “normal” routes on the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc because high temperatures and the consequent increased rockfall made it too dangerous.

Many other routes were being avoided because of the dangerous rockfall conditions. The first six months of 2026 were the third-warmest on record, and it is no wonder that glaciers and the frozen world are responding to this level of global heating.

In August 1990, I climbed perhaps the most iconic and well-known route in the Alps: the north face of the Eiger. The section called the second icefield is a crucial part of the original 1938 route that gives you access to the upper face and the ominously named Death Bivouac.

The icefield no longer exists, and no one who wants a relatively safe passage climbs the route in summer. The recommended climbing season now is late winter or early spring to avoid the rotten rock and dangerous conditions that summer brings. Thus, in my short mountaineering career, I have seen unprecedented changes on famous alpine routes and a transforming landscape in the high mountains.

What does this mean for the future of mountaineering and glaciers? Based on current climate policies, glaciers in the European Alps, western Canada and the U.S., Scandinavia and other regions are expected to lose about 90%–100% of their mass by 2100.

That’s just 74 years away, roughly the time between that first ascent of Everest and now. It will have a dramatic impact on the mountain landscape, ecosystems, tourism, beauty and exposure to natural hazards in these once-pristine mountain environments.

EBC has not been beautiful or pristine for many years, perhaps less because of global heating and more because of the reckless attitude of some of the expeditions that visit. I wonder what Norgay would have made of the changes to both the landscape and attitudes that have occurred since his historic and heroic first ascent of Everest, the sacred “Goddess Mother of the World.”

Who’s behind this story?

Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021.

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Andrew Zinin

Master’s in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X’s editorial success.

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