Return to Nepal: Gokyo 2027
Nepal - March 2027
In March 2027, GlacierWorks returns to the Everest region of Nepal to begin a new chapter of fieldwork combining historical photography, modern repeat photography, and environmental science. The expedition will travel through the Gokyo and Khumbu valleys, revisiting landscapes documented by generations of explorers, scientists, photographers, and by GlacierWorks founder David Breashears. The team will work across elevations to document how these mountain environments continue to change.
Repeat photography is deceptively simple: find the precise location where an earlier photographer stood and recreate the image as closely as possible. In practice, that can require days of searching mountainous terrain, studying ridgelines and foreground features, matching perspective and focal length, and waiting for weather and light to reveal the landscape. David Breashears built GlacierWorks around this process. Beginning in 2007, he retraced the footsteps of pioneering Himalayan photographers to create extraordinarily detailed modern images from historic photographic locations. In 2027, GlacierWorks will return again.
The expedition will relocate selected historic and GlacierWorks photographic positions in the Everest region and create a new generation of matched images, extending a visual record that in some locations reaches back more than a century.
Gokyo: A Landscape in Transition
The Gokyo Valley provides a remarkable natural laboratory for observing Himalayan change. The 18-kilometer long debris-covered Ngozumpa Glacier stretches through the valley beneath Cho Oyu, surrounded by lakes, moraines, ice cliffs, and rapidly evolving terrain. Here the team will combine photography and environmental observations to document both the large-scale transformation of the landscape and processes occurring at the surface of the cryosphere.
Interested in joining the trek and learning more about Himalayan glacial changes?
Join us as a citizen scientist: March 10 - 31, 2027. Join the GlacierWorks team on a 22-day trek through the Gokyo and Khumbu valleys and learn firsthand how Himalayan glaciers are changing.
Two ways to take part:
Everest Base Camp trek. Most citizen scientists will trek with guides from Wongchhu Peak Promotion through Gokyo and over Cho La Pass to Everest Base Camp.
Gokyo Valley research team. A small number of participants can stay with Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña and Ricardo Peña to help with research and photography further up the Gokyo Valley. This group moves fast, so spots are limited to people with strong high-altitude experience.
Cost: About $4,500 per person with flights, or about $4,000 without. Prices are estimates and may change.
Included: Kathmandu airport transfers and 4 hotel nights (with breakfast), city tour, Ramechhap-Lukla flights, park and Khumbu entry fees, all meals and lodging on the trek, tea, coffee and boiled water, guides and porters, duffel bag and trek map, and pay and insurance for all Nepali staff.
Not included: Kathmandu meals (other than welcome and farewell dinners), drinks, personal gear, Nepal visa, required insurance, tips, and personal purchases.
Required insurance: Every participant must have Global Rescue coverage for medical evacuation. Normal travel insurance does not cover high altitude. GlacierWorks has a partnership with Global Rescue and will help you sign up.
Interested in Joining the Exhibition as a Citizen Scientist?
Complete this form and we’ll contact you with more detail