‘Big pieces’ of Kilimanjaro ‘missing’ due to climate crisis, says ice climber Will Gadd

Will Gadd has witnessed at close hand the destruction being wrought by the climate crisis.

The ice climber has spent his life completing one daring expedition after another in some of the coldest places on earth.

But increasingly he sees his “office” melting away and changing beyond recognition.

Earlier in 2020, Gadd climbed Mount Kilimanjaro’s now-melting ice cap for possibly the last time.

“Some of the ice that I climbed just six years ago, in 2014, it is gone,” he told CNN Sport.

“It’s definitely a very different mountain. It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to get there and see the ice that we wanted to climb and then have big pieces of it missing.”

Gadd has been dubbed a “Mountain Hero” by the United Nations for his work exploring how climate change has impacted the world’s mountains, but the ice climber is above all concerned by how such changes will affect the lives of local people.

Watch the video at the top of the page to hear more from Gadd.