When Babar Ali came face-to-face with climate change during his Everest-Lhotse summit

Babar Ali put on his oxygen mask for the first time after Camp 3, below the Yellow Belt on Everest. This is standard practice, but many have started using supplementary oxygen from Camp 2 this year. After some initial struggle with the mask, he continued climbing up to Camp 4. 

But the ascent was far more challenging than he had expected. 

Generally, apart from the death zone above 8000m where human bodies struggle to function, Khumbu icefall is regarded as one of the deadliest parts of the Everest ascent. But Babar found the route from Camp 3 to Camp 4 harder. 

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"In some cases, even Sherpas were taking a long time to cover this area," Babar told The Business Standard on his return from the Everest and Lhotse expedition to Kathmandu. 

"I wondered why it was taking so long? Then I realised this was happening because of melting ice caused by global warming, and lesser snow. The blue ice of Everest can get too hard for crampons to grip," Babar said. "With snow, crampons work comfortably." 

On his final summit push, after a struggling ascent to Camp 4 traversing through blue ice, his watch signalled it was around 6.30 PM.

"When I found out that I had taken around nine to 10 hours to reach Camp 4, I was upset. I thought I needed to quit mountaineering and all," he said. "But when I contacted the basecamp, I realised my watch had auto switched to Tibetan time [roughly two hours ahead of Nepali time]. It turned out, I had actually taken around seven hours." 

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If Babar had actually reached that late, he would have gotten little to no time for rest, as the summit push would soon begin. But either way, soon after he reached, climbers started preparing for the summit push. Babar followed them later, just before 12 AM in the night on May 18. 

On May 19 at 8.20 in the morning, a decade since the last Bangladeshi set foot on the world's highest mountain, Babar summited Everest. On May 21, in the same push, Babar became the first Bangladeshi to summit Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world. 

A doctor by profession, Babar has been a climber for a long time. He climbed several peaks, including Amadablam, an iconic and arguably the most beautiful mountain in Khumbu Valley, before attempting Everest and Lhotse. 

The beginning of his expedition was not very promising though. He reached basecamp on April 10. But the Icefall was not opened until April 19. Opening the Khumbu Icefall means the route to Camp 1 and Camp 2, through the Western Cwm, would be open for climbers for the first rotation of acclimatisation. 

Babar was waiting for several days in the basecamp until he decided to summit the Lobuche peak, which would reduce acclimatisation rotation through the Icefall. 

After a solid preparation for the summit push with a Lobuche summit and acclimatisation ascent till Camp 3, Babar set out for his final push on May 15 at 1.40 AM. It was not only about Everest, but also Lhotse – too many targets were at stake. 

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Babar has a good understanding with his guide Bire Tamang on the duo's walking pace. Although they started late, they reached Camp 2 by 10 in the morning. The climbers this year set out to traverse Icefall much earlier in the night, because the route that Icefall Doctors opened on April 19 was longer than usual. 

In his second ascent through the Khumbu Icefall, Babar said he found the Icefall steps easier than the first attempt, because more ladders were attached, given the widening gaps above the crevasses. 

"Khumbu Icefall is like a Snake-Ludo game. If you get into a crevasse, then you have gone deep. Even Sherpas fall into danger here. At the same time, the shapes of ice can be so diverse here - some are like pinnacles, mushroom-shaped, popcorn-shaped etc. Khumbu Icefall itself is a great experience." 

The glacial retreats have been a concern for a long time. And then there are these increasing numbers of glacial lakes. Their bluish colour is loved by hikers for the photogenic atmosphere it creates. 

"But these are not actually good signs. This is a parameter of global warming and climate change. In Khumbu Icefall, more glacial lakes mean glaciers are melting," Babar said.  

"When I was traversing Khumbu Icefall the first time, I didn't see this many glacial lakes. But while returning, the change I witnessed within 15 days was astonishing. There were more lakes in areas which were snow-covered. From above, while descending, I saw glacial pools down the base camp." 

"This is the most proper place to see global warming," he added. 

A study published in Nature Portfolio Journal Climate and Atmospheric Science found that human-induced climate change is causing the higher glacier on Everest to melt rapidly. 

The study revealed that South Col Glacier, which sits around 7,906m neighbouring Camp 4, has lost 55m of thickness in the last 25 years. It is thinning 80 times faster than how it formed in 2000 years. 

Scientists saw that the thick layer of snow on the glacier has melted away. Now, the dark ice underneath is exposed to the sun, which makes it melt faster. Because the snow is gone, the glacier can't bounce sunlight away like before, so it melts even faster.

Babar took a day's rest on Camp 2 because he reached there on May 15, while they targeted the May 18-19 window for summit push. He ascended Camp 3 on May 17. 

In the acclimatisation phase, they went to the nearest point to Camp 3. But most people returned without reaching the camp because of the blue ice, Babar said. 

They even had an accident on their team. Furba Ongdi Sherpa was hit by a big chunk of ice while climbing the blue ice just below Camp 3. His ankle was fractured. 

While the 'jumar section' down the Lhotse Face, which starts below Camp 3, is very steep and tough, the blue ice hurdle above the camp proved an even harder obstacle. 

And this challenge is discussed in a recent post on Alan Arnette's web portal, a climber and one of the most respected chroniclers of Everest. 

"The first section seems steep, but you have read about the Lhotse Face, so this is not surprising. But it is steep, seriously steep; not quite what you were expecting. OK, it should ease shortly – you try to convince yourself. At least, that is how it looked from Camp 3.

Glancing up from your feet, you now see the Lhotse Face up close. The ice is hard, translucent, blue. You stare at your crampon front points. "Damn, I wish they were sharper," you mumble out loud. The wind picks up, blowing a bit of snow in your face. Actually, you don't mind; it takes you away from the dark thoughts," Arnette chronicles. 

Previously, when some analyses indicated Everest's loss of snow and ice cover, Conrad Anker, one of the most respected mountaineers in the world, said he was not surprised because Everest's ice line seems to have moved up significantly since his first trip to the mountain. 

In 2012, he was part of West Ridge climb when they commemorated the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition. 

"The conditions were so difficult," Anker said. "It had just melted out up there. The Hornbein Couloir was blue ice and, while it is hard to say too much from studying photographs, back in 1963, they were stomping up snow slopes there."

"And the last eight years in the Central Himalaya have been especially dry. Is it warmer temperatures, or less snow, or some combination? I don't know, but it's just melting out up there," Conrad said. 

Nepali climber Binayak Jay Malla summited Everest this year. He also told TBS about the blue ice hurdles, and how this makes crampon grips difficult, which he said happened in the first rotations of acclimatisation. However, he said he didn't struggle during his final ascent as it snowed that day. 

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Babar said that many started using oxygen from Camp 2 due to the challenges of blue ice exposure. Some of his teammates had ten bottles of oxygen. But they were trying one peak. Babar was trying two peaks with eight oxygen bottles.

After starting at around 12 AM in the night from Camp 4, he reached the Everest summit at 8.20 AM Nepali time, where he spent an astonishing 1 hour 20 minutes without oxygen to check his strength in the death zone, partly because he had too many banners from friends and sponsors to take photos with on top. 

"All my life I went to summits [other mountains] with my own money. This was the first time I took sponsors," he said. 

However, despite a successful summit of Everest, he missed a long-cherished dream on top. "I had a great desire to see the sunrise on Everest. I couldn't due to the sudden gloomy turn of weather, which made me a little sad." 

Babar came across two dead bodies on the way to the top. 

"I also came across a dead body just above the basecamp, which I photographed. But I couldn't dare to take a photo of the dead bodies up in the death zone. This can happen to anyone. Even to the strongest mountaineer, if exposed too much," he said. 

Unlike ascent, the descent, however, was very challenging, as they came across a snowstorm near the balcony, which cost them two and half hours. If the storm persisted, they could have been frostbitten. 

Moreover, Babar was supposed to reach Lhotse Camp 4 that day. But it was 4PM already when he returned to Everest Camp 4.  It was too late to get to Lhotse that day, besides, the weather too was bad. 

But on the bright side, he had a great sleep on Everest Camp 4 on May 19, without oxygen. He rested again after reaching Lhotse Camp 4 early the next day and launched his Lhotse summit push at 9.30PM.

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It was a perfect moonlight night. The snow was shining. 

Lhotse seemed more challenging to Babar for the steep nature of the climb. 

He reached the Lhotse peak too on May 21, safely, at 5.50 in the morning. This time, he not only had a proper sunrise from top, but also an amazing view of Everest itself, which you cannot see from anywhere else. He took a photo of Everest from Lhotse, which many shared on Facebook.  

"If I compare the two summits, Lhotse was far better, and I enjoyed it," Babar said with a smile, a great sense of accomplishment was evident on his face. After all, Babar came from a low-lying country, hardly known for individual and extreme sports.

When asked which mountain he wanted to summit next, Babar replied, "Annapurna", one of the most challenging mountains in the world, known for highest 32% fatality rate among the eight thousanders.