As a new biographical film highlighting the life of mountaineer Tenzing Norgay Sherpa prepares to debut on Apple TV, his son has drawn attention to the growing dangers that climate change poses to the Himalayas and mountaineering in Nepal. The film, which premieres on Friday, chronicles the 1953 first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary, an achievement once considered impossible.

More than 70 years later, the Himalayan region is experiencing severe environmental challenges linked to global warming. Nepal recently faced a catastrophic flood caused by the sudden release of water from a glacial lake, an event known as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). Jampling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, 61, the mountaineer’s son, described the disaster as a "warning" about the vulnerability of his country, where half of the land area is mountainous.

“Nepal is very vulnerable to this because half our country is covered with mountains,” Jampling Sherpa said. He emphasized the risk such events pose to communities living downstream along river valleys. Two years ago, his father’s home village of Thame, situated at approximately 3,800 meters elevation, was largely destroyed in a flood triggered by a GLOF.

“The moment glaciers recede ... the lakes are going to rise and then one day, it’s going to breach and break,” he stated. He described how the event in Thame resulted in significant destruction as half the village was effectively wiped off the map.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Jampling Sherpa climbed Everest in 1996, fulfilling a lifelong ambition. However, he noted visible changes to the mountain environment that reflect the broader impact of climate change. He pointed to the appearance of liquid water at Camp 2 on Everest—located at about 6,400 meters—something he observed for the first time. “There was never water at all. It’s always solid ice up there,” he said.

These observations underscore the accelerating pace of glacial retreat and environmental shifts in the high Himalayas, which experts warn could increasingly threaten both local communities and mountaineers. The story of the Sherpas, intertwined with Everest’s history, is now linked to the urgent global conversation about climate resilience in vulnerable mountain regions.