Processes in opposition

Ablation of seasonal snowcover continues at Kibo's summit, while hints of the forthcoming short rain season are becoming evident. The Sentinel-2 image above shows both continuing ablation since the end of August (see previous posts), and a dusting of new snow on southeastern slopes. This is also a nice illustration of how localized snowfall can be on the mountain.

Light accumulating snowfall is common at this time of year, as is its subsequent ablation within a few days. These opposing processes are especially critical for the glaciers as the dry season concludes, because albedo reaches an annual minimum while temperature, humidity, and solar radiation are all increasing.

In today's image (not shown), partially obscured by clouds, the dusting of snow seen above has completely ablated, and snowcover within the caldera is patchier yet.

While it appears that areas of snow will endure the dry season this year, failure of the short rains - or even a delayed onset - might yet ablate much of the lingering summit snow.

What Will Gadd learned on top of Kilimanjaro

Red Bull today released a fantastic new Will Gadd film, shot with a full crew during our pre-COVID February trip. The finished product (45 minutes) is about extreme sport, but also about the science of Kilimanjaro glaciers and climate change; it is well worth watching.

Will was a joy to work with - as eager to learn and share knowledge as he is to climb ice - and clearly articulates the responsibility we all have to reduce our carbon impact. Red Bull deserves major credit for broadening the scope of their productions. And, the stuff is tasty!

Director Tom Beard and the KEO Films crew did a wonderful job of editing, and eagerly accepted ideas to insure an accurate result.

Access the film here:  <https://redbull.com/thelastascent> or here.

 

 

31 August snowcover

Snowcover continued to decrease during the last 5 days of August, as the image below reveals relative to that from 26 August (previous post). Change appears most evident in the northwest corner of the caldera. Nonetheless, the extent of snow at the summit remains more than average - with perhaps two months remaining in the extended dry season.

Tourism on the mountain remains minimal, as the new Coronavirus pandemic continues. For example, the Machame register book shows only 58 climbers departing for the normally-busy months of July and August.

Our friend Simon Mtuy and a large SENE team have been assisting in a large clean-up operation. Over just two days, SENE staff collected 45 kilos of trash from the Machame Camp area. Simon reports that this week there will be 400 crew from 16 companies helping in the clean-up, which will include the Western Breach route and the Crater Camp area. Asante sana!