World’s Highest Ski Run Melted Away

Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier, once known as the world’s highest ski run at 17,388 feet, has completely melted away, serving as a vivid example of the effects of climate change on the glaciers around the globe.

“Chacaltaya has disappeared. It no longer exists.” - Dr. Edson Ramirez, Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres

• » See also: Oceans’ Ability to Absorb Carbon & Protect Against Climate Change Weakening
• » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email.

In 1999, Ramirez, the head of a team of researchers studying the glacier since 1991, believed that the glacier would continue to exist until 2015, but the rate of melting tripled in the last ten years, and the once popular tourist destination is now completely gone.

Only a handful of dedicated skiers and tourists now visit Chacaltaya, which does have a tiny area to ski on snowy days (a run of maybe 600 feet) just down from the location of the former glacier. Alfredo Martinez, a founder of the Club Andino de Bolivia, says ”Very few come to ski now.”

The Chacaltaya glacier is part of Bolivia’s Tuni Condoriri glaciated mountain system, which has lost a third of its ice since 1983. The best guess from researchers is that Tuni and Condoriri, the two largest glaciers in the system, will not last more than 20 to 30 years. Illimani, a 21,200 foot mountain looming over La Paz, is home to several glaciers, which may melt completely within 30 years, said Ramirez.

“It’s very probable that other glaciers are disappearing faster than we thought.” - Ramirez

Ramirez sees the disappearance of Chacaltaya as an example of the effects of greenhouse gas accumulation and an increase in average temperatures worldwide, but says that the controversies over the validity of global warming are irrelevant, because the effects are apparent in the Andean glaciers.

More on Bolivia and Climate Change:

• Days of Skiing in Switzerland Could be Numbered
• Will Bolivia Be Ruined, Improved, or Hated Because of Electric Cars?
• Fight Over Natural Gas Has Bolivia on Brink of Collapse
• Black Carbon Reductions Could Reverse Arctic Warming Within Weeks
• Antarctica’s Glaciers Suffer Strong Retraction
• Tibetan Glaciers Shrinking Faster Than Expected

Image: IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report 2007, Figure 1.1.

Tweet This Post