World-renowned adventurer Will Gadd is having a rethink about his ice-climbing career and carbon footprint after discovering that his planned ascent of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro was no longer possible due to the extensive shrinking of its glaciers.

Gadd, the first person to climb a frozen Niagara Falls, had hoped to scale the remaining ice atop Africa’s highest peak with climbing partner Sarah Hueniken in February. But when they got there, they discovered that the extremely challenging Messner route they wanted to attempt – scaled only once since the 1980s – had lost so much ice it was impossible to ice-climb.

“The trip was an eye-opener for me,” says Gadd, who is helping to raise awareness about fragile mountain ecosystems and glacial melting as a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Mountain Hero. “I’m really disappointed about missing the opportunity to climb the Messner Route, but I’ve come to realize that my carbon footprint, in some small way, contributed to the ice loss. It brings it home to me just how fast the climate is changing, especially in ultra-sensitive environments like glaciers in the tropics.”

For Gadd, the changes from nearly five years earlier were huge; some glaciers were nearly unrecognizable. That has prompted the Canadian to reconsider his globe-trotting ways.

“Climate change, together with this COVID-19 crisis, is making me think that from now on, I want to find fresh challenges closer to my home,” he says.

Source
UN Environment Programme

* Will Gadd climbing fragments of Mount Kilimanjaro’s Furtwängler Glacier in 2014 (top) and 2020 (bottom). These images, shot from a similar location, show the dramatic retreat of the Furtwängler. Another piece of ice behind the glacier has now gone.