Global warming making Everest summiting tougher: Babar Ali says after returning home

Babar Ali, the sixth Bangladeshi mountaineer to summit the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, said mountaineers climbing Everest are now facing more challenging weather conditions in the Himalayas compared to two to three decades ago because of global warming.

"Due to global warming, the weather in the Himalayas has become erratic, and the snowfall has decreased in recent years. The Himalayas are the best place in the world to see the impact of global warming," he said while sharing his experience of conquering two Eight Thousanders at a press conference held at the Alliance Française auditorium in Chattogram on Wednesday. 

"The layer of snow in the Himalayas has become thinner, and the blue ice has been exposed. The glaciers have been moving and creating new glacier lakes," he added.

Babar, as the first Bangladeshi, also summited the fourth-highest peak, Lhotse, at the same expedition. Mount Everest and Lhotse in Nepal are two of the Eight Thousanders – a group of 14 mountains with more than 26,247 ft height.

Babar Ali raised the red-green flag atop Mount Everest on 19 May. This marks the first successful Bangladeshi expedition to Everest in 11 years. On 21 May, he successfully conquered Lhotse at an elevation of 27,940 ft.

After conquering the mountains, he returned to his Chattogram home on Tuesday.

'Frightened to see the dead bodies of mountaineers'

Babar said while scaling Mount Everest, he saw the dead bodies of two Mongolian climbers left on the mountain. He described it as a harrowing sight, and a tougher obstacle as well.

"It was really challenging to climb the mountain after seeing the dead bodies. I was really frightened to see the dead bodies of two Mongolian mountaineers who died very recently," he added.

He added that while climbing the mountain, the climbers must keep the weather updates in mind. The Mongolian mountaineers lost their lives to rough weather conditions.

Babar also said though the height of Everest is high, ascending Lhotse was relatively difficult. 

'Took loan from friends and relatives to share expenditure' 

Responding to a query from journalists, Babar said, "Before summiting Everest, we had to climb a relatively higher mountain to collect the funds for the very expensive expedition, Tk4.5 million, as the corporates were reluctant to fund such extreme individual sports. 

"I had to take a loan from my friends and relatives to arrange one third of the total expenditure," he added.

He added that he would return to his profession as a physician to make a living and would continue mountaineering as well.

"I have a dream to summit an unclimbed mountain along with other challenging mountains in the coming days."

Babar further said the sight of the world beneath, as observed from the summits of Everest and Lhotse, is something that will remain etched in his memory forever.

The mountaineer credits his long-term hard work for his success.

He also thanked his club "Vertical Dreamers", all the sponsoring organisations, and the well-wishers who contributed to the crowdfunding.

Chief coordinator of the expedition Farhan Zaman, Vertical Dreamers' President Debashish Ball and Chief Adviser Shihab Uddin and sponsor Visual Knitwear Ltd's Managing Director AN Faisal were present at the press briefing.

Chattogram to celebrate Babar's success

In celebration of Babar's success, a bicycle parade will be held in the port on 2 June at 5pm. In the evening, Babar will share his experience at the district Shilpakala Academy auditorium.