Mingyong Glacier

Mingyong Glacier descends from the flanks of Kawa Karpo into a valley about 26 kilometres from Feilai Temple, making it one of the most accessible glaciers in China. At 11 kilometres long and averaging 500 metres wide, it is also one of the largest on the eastern edge of the Himalayas. Reaching the glacier involves a drive to the trailhead near Mingyong village followed by a walk of two to three hours across old moraine and through forest to the current ice face.

The approach itself is worth making. Tibetan villagers have farmed and grazed animals in this valley for centuries, and the lower sections pass through juniper and rhododendron forest with the glacier visible above throughout. The glacier's snout is distinctly grey from accumulated rock debris, and the scale only becomes apparent close up — the walls of ice and moraine tower above the path. The village at the trailhead has simple guesthouses and teahouses where you can recover before the drive back.

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Mingyong is one of the lowest-altitude glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere — at its terminus it reaches down to around 2,700 metres, remarkably low for a glacier at this latitude. This is a consequence of the enormous snowfall on Kawa Karpo's flanks, which pushes ice downslope faster than it melts. But the glacier has retreated dramatically: photographs from the 1990s show the ice tongue reaching to where visitors now walk through barren moraine.

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