One expedition's story.

• Position: International Year of Ecotourism

An expedition, dispatched to the Himalayas to chronicle the environmental health of one the world's most famous mountain ranges, has gathered startling evidence of the impacts of climate change. Backed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the team has learned that the glacier from where Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set out to conquer Everest nearly fifty years ago has retreated up the mountain by around five kilometres. Roger Payne, Sports and Development Director at the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) and one of the expedition's leaders, said: "It is clear that global warming is emerging as one if not the biggest threat to mountain areas. The evidence of climate change was all around us, from huge scars gouged in the landscapes by sudden glacial floods to the lakes swollen by melting glaciers. But it is the observations of some of the people we met, many of whom have lived in the area all their lives, that really hit home."

The seven-strong expedition, which set out from Kathmandu on 16 May 2002, returned on 1 June after climbing Island Peak, which is 6,189 metres (20,305 feet) above sea level in the Khumbu region of Nepal. It visited the famous Thyangboche Monastery and talked to experts, including those in the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park. It was in conversation with Tashi Janghu Sherpa, President of the Nepal Mountain Association, that the team first learned of rising concern among local people over the impacts of global warming.

Ian McNaught-Davis, President of UIAA and another expedition leader, said: "He told us that he had seen quite rapid and significant changes over the past twenty years in the ice fields and that these changes appeared to be accelerating. He told us that Hillary and Tenzing would now have to walk two hours to find the edge of the glacier, which was close to their original base camp in 1953, which means that it has retreated by between four and six kilometres. And that around Island Peak, so called because it once resembled an island in a sea of ice, there was once a network of small ponds. Today, they have merged into a big, several kilometre-long lake as a result of the glaciers melting. Mr. Janghu said he was worried--worried that glaciers would continue shrinking and that the melt waters would trigger floods, sending huge quantities of water, rubble and mud down the valley."

At the Thyangboche Monastery, home to sixty Buddhist monks, the team met with Lama Rinpoche...