Southampton scientists mark 10 years since reaching Everest summit
On 23 May 2007 at the summit of Mount Everest a small team of exhausted Southampton doctors and scientists jabbed their own femoral arteries to take blood samples, sparking a decade of ground-breaking discoveries of how low oxygen levels affect the body. Ten years on, this pioneering endeavour has enhanced our understanding of life-threatening trauma and critical illness, how humans adapt to life at high altitude and led to new approaches to intensive care. Read more
Days after a British mountaineer claimed that a famous rock feature near the summit of Mount Everest had disintegrated, two Nepali climbers have contradicted him. So has the Hillary Step collapsed, and if not, why the confusion? Surely it's either there or it's not? Read more
Mount Everest's famous Hillary Step destroyed, mountaineers confirm
A famous feature of Mount Everest has collapsed, potentially making the world's highest peak even more dangerous to climbers. Mountaineers said the Hillary Step may have fallen victim to Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake. The near-vertical 12-metre rocky outcrop stood on the mountain's southeast ridge, and was the last great challenge before the top. It was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first to scale it in 1953. Read more
Climate change scientists' bid to drill Everest glacier
Climate-change scientists are to travel to the Himalayas in a bid to become the first team to successfully drill through the world's highest glacier. The Aberystwyth University-led group will use a drill adapted from a car wash to cut into the Khumbu glacier in the foothills of Everest. They will work at an altitude of 5,000m (16,400ft), in the hope of finding out how climate change affects Khumbu. Read more
Scientists have used Cold War spy satellites to reveal the dramatic environmental changes in the Himalayas. They compared pictures collected by a US reconnaissance programme with recent satellite data to measure the extent of glacial melt. They believe the now-declassified images could help to show how other remote regions have changed over time. Read more
Lakes that have been forming near Mount Everest could threaten settlements downstream if they overflow. Ponds on the surface of the Khumbu glacier in the Himalayas have expanded and joined together to form larger bodies of water. Read more
The height of a swath of the Himalayas has dropped by around one metre as a result of the devastating Nepal earthquake, scientists say. But they add that the drop will roughly be balanced by slow uplift due to tectonic activity. And they have yet to analyse satellite images of the region in which the most famous Himalayan peak - Everest - is located. Read more