Drilling down into the mysteries of the world's highest glacier

Climate change scientists are heading to the Himalayas in a bid to become the first to successfully drill through the world's highest glacier.

An international research team will spend up to six weeks working at an altitude of more than 5000 metres on the Khumbu glacier in Nepal and will be using a specially adapted car wash unit to drill up to 200 metres into the ice.

Once the drilling has been completed, the team, led by Dr Duncan Quincey from the University of Leeds, will be able to study the glacier’s internal structure, measure its temperature, how quickly it flows and how water drains through it.