Mount Everest ice cores to help study climate change

Scientists from China have obtained three ice cores from Mount Everest with the aim to understand more about climate change, an expedition leader said on Monday.

During the expedition that lasted more than a month, scientists drilled the ice cores at a mountain pass near the East Rongbuk glacier, which covers the north collar of the Mount Everest, Xinhua reported.

The longest ice core measures 142 meters. It is the longest ever obtained from the mountain, said Kang Shichang, a research fellow at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The ice cores will be used to study climate and environmental change, he said.

The expedition also found a recent escalation in the melting of the East Rongbuk glacier, with some ice towers on the edge of the glacier disappearing and some new ice crevasses developing further in comparison to what scientists saw in the region in the 1990s, Kang said.

“This indicates that climate and environmental changes have had an obvious impact on Mount Everest,” Kang said.

The study could take one to two years, during which researchers will analyze stable isotopes and organic pollutants in the ice cores.

Some samples will be sent abroad for further study.

Source: The Times of India-20 May, 2013

More than 440 climbers summit Mt. Everest this season

Kathmandu: More than 440 climbers from different countries, including 187 foreigners, have successfully scaled Mount Everest in this season. Altogether 92 climbers scaled Mt. Everest on Tuesday (May 21), 135 on Sunday and 94 on Monday.

According to the officials of Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, 35 foreigners accompanied by 29 Nepali Sherpas scaled Mt. Everest from South Col. of Nepal side on Saturday.

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi Arabian woman to scale the world’s highest peak on Saturday. The 25-year-old Moharrak reached the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) summit with a group of foreign mountaineers and Nepali guides.

Two 21-year-old Indian sisters created history by becoming the first twins ever to conquer the summit of Mount Everest together. Tashi and Nancy Malik from Dehra Dun achieved this feat by successfully reaching the world’s highest mountain peak at 8,848 meters on Tuesday.

Mountaineer Samina Baig has become the first Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain with a peak at 8,848 meters. Baig completed the climb to the summit with her brother Mirza Ali, who becomes the third and youngest Pakistani male to scale the mountain.

Arunima Sinha, a former national level volleyball player of India, who had lost her right leg after thrown off a moving train by some hoodlums, created history on Tuesday by becoming the first Indian amputee to conquer Mount Everest. 25-year-old Sinha reached the summit of the highest peak as a member of the Eco Everest Expedition from the Tata Group.

Similarly, Asian Trekking’s International Everest North side (Tibet) Expedition 2013 members David Liano, Sirdar Mingma Sherpa , John Tsang and Pasang Dawa Sherpa summited Mt. Everest this morning according to Asian Trekking.

David Liano is now the first person to complete the double summit on Mt. Everest in one climbing season. He is also a leader of Eco Everest Diamond Jubilee Celebration (Nepal side) Expedition 2013 Team 1. He summited Mt. Everest from Nepal side on 11 May with his companion High Altitude Sherpa Samden Bhote.

Similarly, the first team of the Mt. Everest Expedition and Sanitation Campaign of army personnel of Nepal and India successfully climbed the Mt. Everest this morning.

According to the Nepal Army Directorate of Public Relations Major Samir Basnet, Captain Kishor Adhikari, Battalian Managing Sergeant Gyanendra Hudda and Corporal Dhirendra Shahi of the Nepal Army and  Major RS Jamwal, Senior Warrant Officer Mingmar Gurung, Army Havildars-Sudhir Singh and Chatar Singh and Lance Nayak Sukbir of the Indian Army climbed the world’s highest peak.

Teams of the Campaign have been collecting garbage from the Mt. Everest base camp and above it for the past one month.

Hundreds of climbers are in different camps of Everest waiting favorable weather to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak in the coming days.

Last week, Russian mountain climber Alexei Bolotov died while attempting to climb Mount Everest., the Russian Mountaineering Federation said. A rope Bolotov was using snapped after it rubbed against a sharp rock, sending the climber into a 300-metre fall, the Russian Mountaineering Federation said.

Bolotov, together with Kazakh climber Denis Urubko, was attempting to summit Everest by its southwest face hitherto unconquered.

Mount Everest, known to local people as Sagarmatha or Chomolungma, rises to 8,848 meters in the Himalayas. The mountain, on the border of Nepal and Tibet, annually attracts thousands of mountain climbers, and expedition teams.

Source: Travel BizNews

UNWTO discusses technology & social media as tool for competitive tourism

Bournemouth University Professor Dimitrios Buhalis chaired the conference and advised countries on how to use social media and technology to boost tourist trade.

Technology and social media are becoming critically important tools for successful international tourism.

This has been recognized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the Minister of Tourism in Costa Rica, who organized a Technical Seminar on Tourism and New Technologies.

Delegates came from 22 countries – including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the Bahamas – and the conference discussed how tourism has been influenced by the latest technological breakthroughs, as well as the opportunities that lie ahead.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Director of the e-Tourism Lab at Bournemouth University (BU), chaired the seminar, which took place in Costa Rica.

A tourism marketing expert who specializes in e-tourism and technology, he chaired panels looking at the internet, social media and mobile marketing in relation to tourism.

He also trained delegates – including 12 tourism ministers – on how to use technology and social media to increase the competitiveness of their tourism industry.

Professor Buhalis said: “It is gratifying that increasingly the international tourism industry and governments from around the world, as well as the United Nations World Tourism Organization, recognize how technology can support the competitiveness of the tourism destinations and organizations.

“Cutting edge research and solutions we develop at Bournemouth University provide technological tools such as social media, augmented reality and gaming to enable organizations to dynamically engage with consumers and facilitate co-creation of products and value in the marketplace.”

Professor Buhalis added that social media is reversing tourism marketing strategies, with consumers becoming advocates and ambassadors for products around the world.

He believes that mobile technologies can make interaction between organizations and consumers dynamic and agile – revolutionizing engagement and economic benefits.

“Only those organizations that are able and willing to use these tools in an agile strategy will be able to develop their competitiveness in the future and generate prosperity for their stakeholders,” he said.

“I am glad that Latin American countries are committed to developing their knowledge through our expertise, and innovating in order to maximize their benefits.”

Other speakers at the seminar included executives from Google, Trip Advisor and Expedia Latin America.

The seminar took place in San Jose, Costa Rica on May 14 and 15.

Source: Breaking Travel News

Bangladeshi, South Korean climbers die on Everest

Kathmandu: A climber from Bangladesh and another from South Korea have died on Mount Everest as hundreds flock to the world’s highest peak during good weather, Nepalese tourism officials said Tuesday.

“Both men died while descending from the summit on Monday,” an official with the tourism ministry told AFP from Everest Base Camp.

Sung Ho-Seo, 34, of South Korea was attempting the climb without supplementary oxygen and died on his way down the mountain.

Mohammed Hossain, 35, from Bangladesh, died in his tent a few hours after successfully climbing the summit.

“The exact cause of death is unknown, but altitude played a part,” said the official, Gyanendra Shrestha, adding that the bodies would not be recovered until after the summit season ended so as not to interrupt other climbers.

Both men perished in the “death zone” — above 8,000 meters, notorious for its difficult terrain and thin air.

Five other climbers have died on the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain this season.

Early in the season Mingmar Sherpa, 47, a member of an elite team known as the “icefall doctors” who set up climbing routes, plunged to his death.

DaRita Sherpa, 47, died from what is believed to have been cardiac arrest earlier this month. Commercial guide Lobsang Sherpa, 22, also plunged to his death. A 50-year-old Russian climber, Alex Bolotov, was found dead near the famed Khumbu Icefall crevasse on May 15.

Namgyal Sherpa, who had led expeditions to clear garbage and bodies from Everest, died May 16 while descending from his tenth successful summit.

Some 300 people have perished trying to reach the summit during the last six decades. The bodies of some of them remain on the mountain.

May is considered the best time for climbing in the Nepalese Himalayas because of mild weather and some 300 people have reached the top of Everest so far this year.

But a brawl that erupted last month between three European climbers and Nepalese guides on the mountain cast a shadow over this year’s season, which marks the 60th anniversary of the maiden ascent by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.

Source: DAWN.com

‘Garden of Dreams’ makes it to Time magazine

International news magazine ‘Time’ has rated ‘Garden of Dreams’ located at Keshar Mahal, Kathmandu, as one of the favorite places to visit in ‘Soul’ section of its Travel Special.

In Time’s March 25 issue, Karen Leigh writes, “If you find yourself in the frenetic Thamel tourist district of Kathmandu and overcome with a need for tranquility, leave the Nepalese capital’s snarling traffic and persistent hawkers behind you and make for this lush greensward across the street from the former Royal Palace.”

The report further mentions, “Designed in the 1920s as a private garden, its wide lawns, surrounded by bamboo, fountains and exotic tree, are the perfect place to revive after a grueling climbing(or shopping) adventure. Walk its immaculately kept perimeter paths before find a spot to lie on the grass and read a book, the sounds of the city drifting overhead.”

“Coverage of Garden of Dreams in Time magazine has put Nepal once again in the international tourism map, and image of Nepal as a happening destination has been redeemed,” says Aditya Baral, Director and spokesperson at Nepal Tourism Board.

Built by late Field Marshal Kaiser Sumsher Rana as his private garden representing six seasons, Garden of Dreams, a neo-classical historical garden was renovated and restored from 2000 to 2007, and opened for public in 2008.

Source: nepalnews.com-19 March, 2013

Nepali-born Canadian 1st double amputee on Everest

Kathmandu: A Nepali-born Canadian, Sudarshan Gautam, has become the first double amputee to climb the world’s highest mountain.

According to Khim Lal Gautam, liaison officer at the Tourism Ministry, Gautam reached atop Mt Everest at 9:00 am on Monday. Gautam, 30, lost both his hands at the age of 14 in an accident. He was on a mission to spread the message that “disability is not inability.”

Nepali actor Arjun Karki also successfully climbed Everest on Sunday morning. On Monday, 84 individuals, including Sherpas, scaled the peak.

Around 670 individuals, including 315 foreigners, are in a bid to climb Mt Everest this spring season. The ministry said 348 individuals have climbed the mountain as of Monday this season.

Meanwhile, government officials at the Everest Base Camp cast doubts over 80-year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura’s bid to climb Everest. Miura is in the race to secure the title of the world’s oldest person to scale the world’s highest mountain. At present, Nepali Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, holds the title. The officials said Miura is on oxygen all the time. “Miura alone has recruited 12 Sherpas for his support,” the official said. “Many relatives of Miura and journalists are frequently visiting him; among them are some Japanese journalists who have not obtained permits to visit the base camp.”

Miura had first climbed the peak in 2003 at the age of 70. He climbed Everest again in May 2008 when he was 75, but this time failed to set a record as he reached the summit a day after Sherchan achieved the feat at 76. Sherchan, at the age of 76 years and 340 days, was officially recognized as the oldest to climb the mountain by the Guinness World Records in November 2009. He is currently in a “wait and watch” mode.

Raha Moharrak, 25, became the first Saudi woman to summit the mountain on Saturday. Samina Baig became the first Pakistani woman to scale Everest on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, the tourism ministry said Hsiao Shih Lee, 58, a Chinese citizen, died on Monday morning. He developed altitude sickness on May 18 at the height of 8,000m while approaching the summit of Mt Lhotse.

Three Sherpas and a foreigner have already lost their lives on Everest.

Fifty-year-old Russian climber Alex Bolotov died last Wednesday in Khumbu icefall at 5600 meters.

Source: ekantipur

Actress Nisha Adhikari summits Everest

Kathmadu: Nepali film actress Nisha Adhikari has successfully climbed the world’s highest peak Mount Everest on Tuesday morning.

Adhikari stepped on the summit at about 8 this morning. Adhikari also became the first Nepali actress to summit the world’s highest peak.

Actress Adhikari and actor Arjun Karki had left for the base camp on April 9. However, their Everest ambition was dragged into controversy after it was discovered that they did not have the permission to climb the peak and were taken as high altitude workers. The hurdles were later cleared after Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said that it will not stop the duo from climbing the Everest given that their expedition itinerary does not breach the existing rules.

Actor Karki had reached the summit on Monday.

Source: ekantipur

Rush for Everest glory, records begin

Some people are never easily satisfied. Spanish climber David Liano Gonzalez belongs to that tribe.

On Sunday morning, the 33-year-old reached the summit of Mount Everest (8,848 m) from the north (Tibet) side. This was his fifth ascent of the world’s highest peak. More significantly, Gonzalez achieved this feat just eight days after scaling the peak on May 11 from the south (Nepal) side -becoming the first person to complete ‘double summit’ in one climbing season.

“At 4:30 am on May 19, I came back to the top of the world.….achieving the double promotion,” he wrote on his website soon after creating the record.

Gonzalez is among hundreds of climbers from across the world rushing towards the Everest summit within the ‘weather window’ of eight days beginning May 18.

Nine members of a joint team of army personnel from Nepal and India also reached the peak at 9:00 am on Sunday. The team is on a mission to clean garbage from the mountain.

On Saturday, as many as 64 climbers reached the peak from the Nepal side. They included Raha Moharrak, who became the first Saudi Arabian woman to scale Everest.

The 25-year-old is part of ‘Arabs with Altitude’ which includes a Qatari royal, an Iranian entrepreneur and a Palestinian businessman.

Eleven Sherpas were the first to reach the peak this season on May 10. Till Friday, 43 climbers had reached the peak – the first rush for the peak began Saturday.

“Till Sunday, 248 climbers have reached the peak,” said Tilak Pandey, an official of Nepal government’s tourism ministry.

Source: Hindustan Times

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