Is that significant? I am too lazy to do the math, but 6 tons of urine at 37 temperature while cooling to whatever temperatures are there, could free 4kJ * 6k * 40 ~= 1GJ ~= 300 kW*h. Which is pathetically low in the scale of the mountain.

I do no math, isn't this about a lower freezing point for water due to the extra chemicals?

I believe that effect would be even less noticeable.

Well, i thought a little about it (30s). On the common trails they all use and pee on, say the extra stuff gets trapped under the layers, adds some slush along the way. As they trop all over it back and forth, is there a chance it starts jiggling and sliding?

Wouldnt 6 thousand liters of urine a day roughly melt 6 thousand liters of ice a day just in areas concentrated around the base camps if the ice isn't colder than -37C?

And the title aside, I think the article mentioned the study included lots of heat sources, with urine being a smaller part.

I can suspect a chance of yellowing, but that's it :)

I'm pretty sure you can cause avalanches if you yell too loud.

Everest is the Disney Land of mountaineering; 30,40 years ago I admired these climbers, today I just go: shit man whtaturdouing.

Not exactly. The specific heat of ice is about half of the specific heat of water.

So 6 tonnes of urine at 37°C would take 12 tonnes of ice from -37°C to 0°C.

That's still ice, though, and it takes way more energy to thaw ice that to warm ice from -37 to 0.

Actually, I'll just do the math.

6 Mg piss * 37°C * 4.18 J/g°C = 929 MJ

Let's say ambient ice temp is -20°C.

20°C * 2.05 J/g°C * X + 333.55 J/g * X = 929 MJ

X ~2.5 tonnes of ice melted.

Not too bad. I suspect the change in albedo is the real problem.

What about a fart? I always fart when I pee.

People of Nepal, urine trouble.

quick math tells me that if we include urea (0.85M) and salt (0.71M) then freezing point of urine should be about -4.2C, in close to worst case scenario, which decreases roughly linearly as it is diluted. meaning that this is temperature where urine starts freezing, but below that point there is some amount of liquid where all urea and salt concentrates. just for water-salt mix some amount of liquid will remain down to -22C

i guess this gets more important at higher tempetatures

Lol. The news is getting so ridiculous I'm about to tap out.

not that it changes math much, but at that piss to ice ratio melting point is about -3C

I’d say with enough pee on the same spot(s), there is a fair chance that some ice will start sliding, turning into a problem a few kilometres below but I have no scientific foundation to back it.

A stampede of mountaineers suddenly running from you could be a problem, true.

Well, i thought a little about it (30s)

This actually made my day. Together with all the other posts here speculating whithout having any idea what they are talking about.

So you’re saying they need to hydrate better?

Stories like this are dazzle meant to distract from human caused greenhouse gas emissions. Why was this published one week after thousands were killed by flooding in Nepal?

Its obv that ppl are destroying the Everest ecosystem, but claiming their urine melts the glacier a few days after such a devastating event? Shame on them.

Alright, that's it. Pool's closed, everybody off the fucking mountain unless you were born within 50km. Every person who crossed a border to climb in the past 20 years now owe $2M for cleanup and paying locals for their labor.

Ah, so climate change is real, it's just caused by piss and piss alone.

Another conspiracy hidden by Big Urine.

Fucking stupid article

I am too lazy to do the math

Starts doing the math.

Love it.

Imagine being the dude pissing on a glacier and watching it crack.

Well, when the Love Parade rolled through the Tiergarten in Berlin, the scientist took soil samples and the amount of urine was killing the ecosystem.

Yeah I'm pretty positive that correlation does not have causation here as far as this article coming out. I think it's just ill-timing for this scientific study to have been released. Considering it's a study which means that it took months if not years to come to fruition it wasn't like they just ran out there in the last couple of days and said oh hey look at this. I mean try having a little bit of critical thinking when it comes to stuff like this rather than just jumping to some idiotic conclusion.

The journal Regional Environmental Change publishes many articles all the time. Its uncommon for one to make the popular news outlets. That's what I'm saying.

Use some critical thinking.

Better and cheaper mountains to climb in the region

It's a privilege to pee

Most of these people don't sumit, they just go to first base camp for insta pictures and leave.