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Day 0: Opening session – breaking the ice
The HKH Women on Ice initiative began on December 1, 2024, with an intimate opening session attended by participants, representatives from our partners in Nepal, Kathmandu University and Tribhuvan University and ICIMOD leaders.
The HKH Women on Ice expedition is dedicated to spotlighting and empowering women in glacier science and climate action. It draws its inspiration from Adventure of Science, a programme of annual tuition-free, scientific and glaciological expeditions for young women from Central Asia. The emphasis of HKH Women on Ice is on collaboration, building capacity and visibility to foster a community of women navigating the challenging field of glacier research. It also serves as a precursor to profile key issues in the HKH cryosphere, including climate change, and hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods, landslides, rockfalls, and avalanches, and to build momentum for the upcoming International Year of Glacier Preservation (IYGP) 2025.
At the opening session, experts and members of ICIMOD leadership team advocated for gender equality and reinforcing the need to recruit more women in field-based cryosphere science. Their words of wisdom and encouragement set the tone for a momentous journey.
“The glacier as a site is very important because there are three different communities that interact with each other – the political, local and scientific communities. The main reason for me to join this expedition is to understand how these three communities really interact with each other and shape the social life of a glacier. Through my participation in this expedition and also with my long-term research, I intend to bring society into discussion with science in order to better integrate policy and governance at the regional level.” Aishwarya Sanas, India
“There are not many women researchers in this field, especially from this region. Just before coming here, we organised a stocktaking for cryosphere workshop in Bhutan. Me and one other participant who organised this workshop were the only girls; all the other 15 participants in the workshop were male. I want to inspire more girls like me to participate in this kind of programme in the future as well.” Pema Eden, Bhutan
“Witnessing the staggering changes in the Ponkar glacier will be sobering – once the ice is gone, it will not return. Your stories will be instrumental in shifting the focus to the fragile state of the HKH cryosphere and the critical need to invest in cryosphere science.” Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director, ICIMOD
