A joint China-Nepal scientific expedition has completed the first full-depth ice core extraction from the summit of Mount Everest to gather samples for climate and environmental research.
The team conducted scientific sampling, including summit ice core drilling, at 8,848.86 metres. According to state-run Global Times and PTI reporting from Beijing on May 24, 2026, the summit core was removed in roughly two hours. On their descent the scientists also collected ice and snow cores at multiple altitude gradients.
Collected material will be kept at low temperatures and transported to laboratories for detailed study. Researchers plan to use the samples to investigate climate and environmental change in ultra-high-altitude regions, cryosphere evolution, and atmospheric records from extreme elevations.
Chinese scientists quoted in reports said the cores could clarify how the Indian monsoon influences the highest reaches of the Himalaya, reveal pollutant transport pathways into high-altitude areas, and show differences in climate response between Everest’s northern and southern slopes.
The new summit core extends high-altitude ice records beyond the previous documented high of 8,020 metres, where an ice core was taken from the South Col glacier just above Camp IV in May 2019.
Studying Everest remains urgent as the mountain’s glaciers are undergoing rapid change. In May 2023 the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) reported that 79 glaciers around Everest thinned by more than 100 metres over roughly six decades, and that thinning rates have nearly doubled since 2009.
Known as Qomolangma in Tibetan, Mount Everest sits on the China-Nepal boundary. The two countries settled their border line through the summit in 1961. The newly extracted summit core is expected to add valuable, high-elevation evidence to ongoing studies of warming impacts and environmental change in the world’s highest region.
