Sunrise over the retreating Stanley Glacier
John Wendle
African glaciers are some of the fastest melting glaciers on earth. Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could disappear by 2040, and Mount Kenya and the little-studied Rwenzori Range, which straddles Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, could disappear in the next decade.
Melting Nose of Stanley Glacier
John Wendle
Their loss has deprived scientists of important ice cores that record the little-documented climate history of subequatorial Africa, and rare plant and animal species in these unique ecosystems on the slopes of mountains. may lead to extinction.
My wife and fellow journalist Alessandra Prentice and I hiked for eight days in the Rwenzolis Mountains to photograph some of the glaciers in these mountains before they disappear.
Rwenzori Trekking Service Deputy Chief Guide Enoch Bwambale (left) and Uzia Kure (right)
John Wendle
The main image shows the sun rising over the retreating Stanley Glacier, clustered in the valley between Mount Margherita (the third highest in Africa at 5,109 meters) and Mount Alexandra, part of Mount Stanley. In the 1906 photo, thick ice can be seen covering the tops of the mountains, but now the glacier covers less than 1 square kilometer.
giant lobelia rosette
John Wendle
to reach At this location, we hiked for six days, occasionally slipping into the knee-deep mud of the Rwenzolis River, which in the local language Konjo means “for rain.”
Porters walk through a misty, lichen-covered landscape of giant heather
John Wendle
The rest of the images show: The melted nose of the Stanley Glacier.Giant Senecioguided by Enoch Bwambale and Uzair Kure of Rwenzori Trekking Service. Huge rosette of Lobelia. Porters transporting goods through the huge heather of Rwenzolis (pictured above). Bwambale and Prentice on the Stanley Glacier (pictured below).
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