Karola Glacier

En-route to Everest we find this magnificent white glacier, framed by colourful prayer flags and high mountains.

This large mass of compacted ice and snow, comprised off of a large ice cap and two hanging glacier tongues, is one of the major highlights on the road from Lhasa to Everest Base Camp. Colourful prayer flags flutter in the foreground, whilst towering mountains surround the glacier to form a memorable vista. It is an awesome display of the power and beauty of the Tibetan landscape, but also the fragility. The tens of thousands of glaciers in the high Tibetan plateau provide a source for China's and Asia's most important rivers, including the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. Global warming risks shrinking these glaciers and lessening the flow of water to the rivers, upon which billions depend.