Climbers are melting Everest’s glacier with their urine, study warns
- Research shows that heat from fuel burned and human urine at Everest Base Camp melts 2,500 tonnes of ice and snow annually.
Heat from fuel burned at the Everest Base Camp and urine discharged directly onto the glacier was enough to melt 2,500 tonnes of ice and snow every year, according to new research.
An international team studied the Khumbu Glacier, the location of the base camp on the Nepalese side of Everest, publishing their findings in the journal Regional Environmental Change .
During the spring climbing season, thousands of mountaineers, guides and support staff converge on the camp, which grows into a teeming tourist village, complete with espresso cafes, large-screen TVs, high-speed internet, hot showers, and heated tent floors.
The study revealed that running the camp's roughly 1,600 tents over the 50-day spring season in 2023 consumed 824 canisters of liquefied petroleum gas, 18,935 litres of kerosene and 5,130 litres of petrol for cooking, heating and power.
Combined with heat from human urine, the total energy output came to 849,174 megajoules, enough to melt an estimated 2,492 tonnes of ice and snow, with a margin of error putting the figure between 1,964 and 3,020 tonnes. That much water could fill a single Olympic-sized swimming pool, or roughly 83 tanker trucks, or about 16,700 standard bathtubs.
Urine turned out to be a significant heat source in its own right. Climbers and guides drink large volumes of water at altitude to avoid dehydration, together producing 6,000 litres of urine a day.
Stone and toppled signage marks the start of the Everest Base Camp (Getty)
While solid waste is collected and carried down the mountain, much of the urine is discharged directly onto the glacier. The researchers estimated that its heat alone could melt about 154 tonnes of ice over a single season.
Satellite data pointed to a wider warming trend around the camp. Analysing Landsat imagery from 1991 to 2023, the researchers found surface temperatures at the camp had risen on an average by 0.28C a year, roughly twice the rate recorded on the surrounding Khumbu Glacier.
The team, including Kim Lal Gautam, senior surveyor at Nepal 's Department of Land Management, said the true scale of human impact was likely higher still, since their calculations excluded heat from helicopter flights, climbers' body warmth, and the yaks used to carry supplies.
While noting that climate change remained the primary driver of Everest's glacial melt, the researchers argued that concentrating thousands of people on an already rapidly melting glacier year after year was unsustainable.
"In the long term, relocating the base camp from the glacier to a stable nearby area should be considered," they said.
