Brief communication: Everest South Col Glacier did not thin during the last three decades

Abstract

Abstract. The South Col Glacier is an iconic small body of ice and snow (approx. 0.2 km2), located on the southern ridge of Mt. Everest. A recent study proposed that South Col Glacier is rapidly losing mass. This seems in contradiction with our comparison of two digital elevation models derived from aerial photographs taken in 1984 and a stereo Pléiades satellite acquisition from 2017, from which we measure a mean elevation change of 0.01 ± 0.07 m a-1. To reconcile these results we investigate wind erosion and surface energy and mass balance, and find that melt is unlikely a dominant process, contrary to previous findings.