CBC News
Posted: Sep 24, 2012 2:34 PM ET
Last Updated: Sep 24, 2012 2:40 PM ET
...A number of factors (click here) can set off a disturbance. They include natural factors like new precipitation (be it rain or additional snow), a sudden warming, wind, ice fall or rock fall, as well as so-called "artificial" factors like skiers and snowmobilers. The long-held notion that avalanches can be triggered by the human voice has been largely debunked.
According to the Utah Avalanche Center, 90 per cent of avalanche fatalities are triggered by the weight of one of the victims in the group. In other words, the pressure exerted by human movement caused a fracture in the snowpack, loosening the top layer and unleashing a torrent of snow.
Most avalanches occur 24 hours after a rapid, heavy snowfall....
There is little to no 'packing' of the snow at that point. Skiers that like loose and deep snow realize the dangers of such a snowfall.
The Sherpas know the mountain is changing and as a result the instability has increased. That instability is reflected throughout the 713-square-mile Sagarmatha National Park area with retreating glaciers and snowline.
By JohnThomas Didymus
May 16, 2013 in Environment
Researchers announced at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun, Mexico,
May 14, that snow and ice on Mount Everest and the neighboring area was
melting at an increasing rate. According to the study, global warming is
affecting the Everest environment......According to Live Science, Sudeep Thakuri, (click here) a graduate student at the University of Milan in Italy, who led the research, said increasing temperatures have caused glaciers in the Mount Everest region to shrink by 1,300 feet (400m) or 13 percent in the last 50 years. The study also found that the snowline has receded in the same period by 590 feet (180 meters).
Thakuri said that shrinking glaciers and receding snowline has caused rocks and debris previously permanently covered by snow to appear. According to the researchers, the visible debris in the region had increased by 16 percent since the 1960s.
CBS News reports that the research team tracked the temperatures and precipitation rates using hydro-meteorological data from Nepal Climate Observatory and Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. They found there had been a 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit increase in temperature and 3.9-inch (100 millimeters) decrease in precipitation (snow and rainfall) during the pre-monsoon and winter moths since 1992....
