Swansea University Expert Helps Document Dramatic changes in Mount Everest’s Kama Valley over the last century

While retracing the steps of the famous expeditions that reconnoitred the northern route to Mount Everest more than 100 years ago, a Swansea University academic has helped document dramatic environmental and cultural changes in the region.

Professor Carl Cater, Associate Professor in Tourism Marketing, and Professor Linsheng Zhong, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have shared their findings in a new article published in Geographical magazine.

‘Everest Revisited’ offers an in-depth exploration of the Kama Valley, a region in Tibet which leads up to the east of Mount Everest or Qomolangma, as locals know it.

Using photographs and detailed observations from British expeditions between 1921 and 1924 by the RGS and Alpine Club, as well as those from a recent visit in June by Professor Cater, the article provides a unique historical comparison.

Described as “one of the most beautiful valleys in the world” by Charles Howard-Bury, expedition leader in 1921, these latest photographs show why the Kama Valley still retains its allure today, but they also highlight the remarkable and rapid challenges the Himalayas are facing.

One of the most impressive sides of Mount Everest, the Kangshung face, towers some two miles above the glacier below, and while the mountains and peaks still look remarkably similar, the decline of the glacier’s surface is a physical reminder of the effects of climate change.

In the article, Professor Cater and Professor Zhong comment: “The glacier surface is now mantle[d] with rocky debris and numerous supraglacial lakes, leaving a lunar like landscape, in contrast to the debris-free ice surface of 1921.”

Today, the Kama Valley trek is becoming increasingly popular with Chinese trekkers, yet there are still very limited facilities to deal with the impacts these new tourists are having, such as human and plastic waste.

However, this boost in popularity also offers potential benefits.

Professor Cater and Professor Zhong state: “The growth of tourism has brought significant economic opportunity to local populations, both in the Kama valley but particularly at Rongbuk, where a tented city now caters for the estimated half a million tourists annually being transported by a fleet of electric buses from the hub at Tashizhom.

“The expected redesignation of the Qomolangma National Nature Reserve as a national park in the current central government plan may bring opportunities for further management in this time of change.”

To conclude their trip, Professor Cater visited Rongbuk, building a memorial cairn to “honour the sacrifice of Kellas, Mallory and Irvine and the nine Tibetan and Indian personnel lost in 1922 and 1924 in the exploration of the mountain.”

The trip was funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the Presidents International Fellowship Initiative.

The authors plan to expand on their findings in a paper to be published soon.

Read the full article in the January 2025 issue of Geographical.

Learn more about Professor Cater’s work in his latest edited book, The Routledge International Handbook of Adventure Tourism, with Professor Gill Pomfret and Dr Adele Doran.

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Image copyright: Professor Carl Cater