I stepped off the plane and saw them! The high, snow‑covered mountains of the Himalaya. We had flown into the village of Lukla in Nepal. I wouldn’t see Mount Everest until the next day. When I did, I had to look up to the sky. That is where I’d see the summit.

I was part of an expedition to Mount Everest. I was here because our planet is changing. Right now, we’re seeing dramatic climate changes. We don’t fully understand them. Especially in extreme places like high mountains. We don’t have a lot of data for such places.

Here, the glaciers provide water to millions of people. They also feed rivers that flow to parts of Asia where billions of people live. Warmer temperatures are causing the glaciers to melt too quickly. We want to know more about this. So, we collected samples of ice, snow, rocks, and water. We also set up weather stations along the way.