A High Prize for the Vanishing African Ice
The return of our team from the summery Uganda to the wintery Lausanne before the Christmas break had a feeling of achievement. Our tropical raid to sample the Vanishing African glaciers was awarded by a desired âwindow of opportunityâ which gave the chance to collect our samples and run our experiments in a stunning setting that does not remind of Africa. However, the momentum was outpaced by the intense preparations for the following Andes expedition and the Festive Season, but on the other hand, this period gave enough time to recall the wonders of the Rwenzori expedition and organize a gesture of gratitude to the local people that made things work for us.
Martina Schoen and Matteo Tolosano enjoying the hidden frozen jewel of African nature, the Stanley glacier, in the only sunny day of a 2-week trekking raid in the Rwenzori Mountains (Photo © Mike Styllas)Â
For most people, glaciers in Africa are an obscured concept, shared between relatively few passionate mountaineers, who are allured by the conquest of the Roof of Africa. Kilimanjaro holds this title, but we would argue that most local people in Kenya and Tanzania, where the Uhuru Peak is rising 5895m above the sea level, are not aware of their countryâs vanishing ice masses. A few hundred kilometers to the northwest, Margherita Peak, the pinnacle of Ugandaâs Rwenzori National Park, a declared UNESCO world heritage site since 1996, is the third highest summit in Africa and also hosts several small glaciers, which in contrast to their Kenyan - Tanzanian counterparts, display movement and feature glacier streams, an ideal setting for our project.
Our beloved guide, Ochora with Martina Schoen and Tyler Kohler embarking for the most demanding and âwetâ sampling undertaken so far, for Vanishing Glaciers project (Photo © Matteo Tolosano)Â
Our official collaboration with Makerere University in Kampala was very fruitful and to our pleasure and gratitude came the fact we shared the impacts of tropical African glacier recession and alpine ecosystems dynamics with two very dynamic women, Dr Juliet Nattabi and Dr Rosemary Kawaga from Makerere University, who were also catalyzers in overcoming and resolving successive logistical setbacks. Our experience and persistence, as well as the fact that English is the official language in Uganda, gave additional momentum to the never-ending bureaucratic battles, which were dressed with certificates from states agencies over other agencies and other delays. After we spent a few days in the calm and quite campus of Makerere University and with all issues resolved, we loaded the safari vans and headed to the Rwenzori National Park.Â
While driving through the Ugandan countryside and bumping into the different species of the eastern African fauna, the thought that we had to pull off the climb to the Rwenzoriâs at the end of the wet season was suspended in the back of our minds. This meant that humidity would be our best friend over the next weeks. Polar scientists that undertook research on the Rwenzori glaciers claimed the place to be âcolderâ than Antarctica itself, due to the combination of constant wetness and cold conditions on the upper mountain.Â
The first encounters with the African fauna occurred on the road from Kampala to Kilembe (Photo © Mike Styllas)Â
Our ultimate goal to collect samples from an ecologically, microbiologically and geomorphologically extreme glacier, resting in a tropical setting at 5000m above the sea level, revived when we set foot on the Rwenzoriâs base camp, the village of Kilembe. The massive deposits of the 2013 Nyamwamba river flash flood, which destroyed 70 buildings, several bridges, a hospital, a school, a tarmac road and other infrastructures , gave us a contrasting welcome in a very dynamic the place with calm local people.
Remnants of the 2013 destructive flash flood in Kilembe (Photo © Martina Schoen)Â
From the first day of the march towards Stanley glacier, we were awed by the vegetation and strange animal species found along the trail. As we climbed higher, we were relieved to leave behind the malaria threat of the lowlands, but from the first evening, we felt the moisture penetrating through several layers of clothing. Our daily menu involved muddy trails through patches with incredible plants and trees, through bamboo forests, through bogs with wooden passages. And this magnificent landscape kept changing every day.Â
Crossing a wooden passage through one of the numerous bogs (Photo © Mike Styllas)Â
The high levels of humidity, as these tropical forests ârespireâ and the daily rain, were a good reminder that glaciers in the tropics are still surviving due to ever-recycled moisture and dense cloud cover. Other climate extremes over eastern Africa such as severe droughts were evident from the burned stacks of trees left behind from a wildfire that occurred nearly a decade ago. With so much rain and humidity during our stay, it was hard to imagine a wildfire burning the entire catchment, but in 2012 a widespread drought in the area, with two consecutive dry seasons and minimal rain during the intervening wet season occurred. The wildfire burned down significant portion of the upper catchment and climbed up to the proglacial area. The year after the wildfire, the devastative flash flood occurred when torrential rains over the burned slopes and released large amounts of water, mud, sediment from the upper catchment.Â
From the base of the mountain to our highest camp, we had to hike in rubber boots, as mud and continuous stream crossings filled our daily hiking menu (Photo © Martina Schoen)Â
In addition to the abundant moisture and water flowing everywhere, we were also struck by the dark color of the stream water. The entire setting appeared to be a great storage of carbon that was flushed out of these steep and densely vegetated catchments through the hydrographic network.
The typical landscape of the misty Rwenzoriâs during the first days of our approach to the glaciers with the dark carbon rich water flowing everywhere. (Photo © Matteo Tolosano)Â
As we moved higher, successive glacial lakes and frontal moraines marked our entrance to the extensive proglacial zone, which unlike the mid and high-latitude glacial settings, was dressed in a tropical suit. As the glaciers extended down to these locations a few thousand years ago, it was amazing to see how fast vegetation can be established and climb to higher elevations in the tropical alpine belt. Cloud cover, moisture and rain kept being our companions on a daily basis.Â
Despite the dense vegetation the proglacial lake bounded by a terminal moraine, reminded us that the glaciers extended at this location a few thousand years ago (Photo © Martina Schoen)Â
When we finally reached Margherita camp and prepared our sampling equipment the cloud finally broke and we were suddenly exposed to a stunning alpine setting with small glaciers hiding between steep rock walls and rocky towers. Sampling the stream of Stanley glacier on a sunny day made all the muddy hiking and wetness related fatigue to evaporate and still looms like the perfect moment of our trip. However, even this day did not start as easy and the going in the rocky ledges was tough, as frozen moisture and verglass were spread over the cliffs and couloirs leading to Stanley Plateau. Then the cloud dissapeared and the views became fantastic as alpine Africa and Stanley glacier were basking into the strong tropical sun. The sunny day and the blue skies during our fieldwork time up there were definitely a highlight of this trip, but there were brighter moments during our Uganda expedition.Â
 The intimidating view of the upper mountain from Margherita camp (Photo © Matteo Tolosano)Â
En route to Stanley Plateau. Nothing could foretell that this foggy, cold, wet and slippery scramble would lead to a glorious day (Photo © Martina Schoen)Â
 While in Kampala, we had the chance to share Vanishing Glaciers project concept and recent sceintifc findings with the students of the Seven Hills International School. We are particularly thankful to Ms Romina Kohler, the Swiss Honorary Consulate in Kampala and to Ms Alice Bourgoin, the Head of the School for organizing this event. The general interest and the acute questions of the students, was a good reminder that young generations are aware and interested into issues related to climate change impacts on glaciers and alpine ecosystems. To our surprise, this event concluded with an aura of hope, as the millennials attending the talk were also seeking solutions to the ongoing climate and environmental crises. Â
Tom Battin, presenting the expeditions and most recent scientific findings of Vanishing Glaciers project to the students of the Seven Hill high school in Kampala. (Photo © Matteo Tolosano)Â
Over the two weeks spent on the slopes of Rwenzori Mountains, we had a great chance to become friends with our team of guides and porters. Besides the scientific part, the whole raid was a very informative process, as from the start of the trek we became exposed to several legends and myths that envelope the Rwenzoriâs in a similar fashion as their moisture clouds. The mountain tribes were an open encyclopedia in terms of the plants healing and medical capabilities and our guides conveyed this collective empirical knowledge in every corner of the trail. Several talks with the team members over smoky fires burning wet wood invovled broader subjects like the social structure of Uganda, the civil war and the difficult years that followed, and gave us the chance to become familiar with the evolution of life in eastern Africa since the colonial times.
 The team with Dr Rosemary Kawaga on its way to Ugandaâs Vanishing glaciers (Photo © Martina Schoen)Â
The bonding with the entire team of porters and guides became stronger as the days went by. We were inspired by their professionalism and patience to make our expedition happen and by their willingness to share with us knowledge about their mountains and life experiences. On the downside, it was very disappointing to see that these bright people, among several difficulties of their everyday life, had to face the cold and humid conditions of the mountain with inadequate, not to say primitive equipment. The fact that we were hiking with a team of porters and guides lacking the essentials to pull out a trek like ours, ranged in our ears from day one. As the days went by and the conditions became harder, we felt that the least we could do upon return to Lausanne, was to organize a campaign and ship used outdoor equipment to these people that will make their work on the mountain as guides and porters a little easier.Â
Mountain gear bound to Africa. Tom Battinâs initiative to collect used equipment and send it to Uganda found a great response from the UNIL â EPFL community (Photo © Matteo Tolosano)Â
In the end, the High Prize for our African expedition was not the demanding and successful sampling campaign of Africaâs vanishing glaciers. The highlight from our Rwenzori expedition is the fact that we did meet many hard working, bright people inhabiting the jewel of Africa and thanks to the solidarity response of the joint EPFL- UNIL community, these people with their big smiles, can work under better conditions on their beloved mountain and shine a little more. They deserve it!
Best Wishes for a Fruitful and Productive New year to the entire EPFL - UNIL community!
The Vanishing Glaciers project team
