Field trip to Everest region, November 2020

Like every fall since 2007, the French-Nepali joint expedition is about to depart for the Everest region to survey the mass balance of three glaciers. This field campaign is a joint project between French partners (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement/Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement) and Nepali partners (Tribhuvan University/International Center for Integrated Mountain Development). Within four weeks, the team will trek to the glaciers and do the annual measurements of glacier mass changes, with respect to the international standards. The data collected every year are publicly available (https://glacioclim.osug.fr/). We will also maintain automatic weather stations that have been in operations for more than five years.

The team

Patrick Wagnon, IGE (IRD)
Arbindra (Research Assistant ; ICIMOD and Tribhuvan University)
Fanny Brun, IGE (IRD)
Phonindra (porter)

The itinerary

We will start from Lukla on Nov. 14th and will come back approximately one month later. On the map below, we show our itinerary (dashed line), as well as the three surveyed glaciers with our approximate dates of presence.

Metrological station at the summit of Mera peak (6400 m)

Field trip and covid-19 situation

Due to the global covid-19 pandemic, conducting field work in remote valleys is questioning, as very few people have been infected by the virus in the Everest region. In order to avoid propagating the virus, we follow the following rules :

  • All the French members had a PCR test before traveling to Nepal and had a quarantine in Kathmandu
  • Before traveling to Lukla all the expeditions members will have a PCR test
  • All the expedition members will wear face masks and use sanitizer gel when meeting with local people
  • All the local people hosting the expedition members are informed that the team is coming and welcome the team