Clear heavens, calm winds and a breathtaking view of Himalayan summits draped in snow - that is the autumn experience that hikers on the world's highest peak have come to love.
However that seems to be transforming.
Weather experts say the rainy season now extends into fall, which is historically the high-altitude tourism period.
Throughout this delayed tail end of monsoon, they have recorded at least one instance of extreme precipitation almost every year for the previous decade, with high-altitude conditions becoming more dangerous.
Last weekend, a unexpected snowstorm stranded hundreds of tourists near the eastern face of Mount Everest for multiple days in bitterly cold temperatures at an altitude of more than 16,000ft.
Nearly six hundred hikers were led to security by the conclusion of Tuesday, according to reports.
One person had succumbed from extreme cold and altitude sickness, but the remaining individuals were reportedly in good health.
The emergency was on the Tibetan slope but a comparable situation had unfolded on the southern side, where a South Korean mountaineer lost his life on another Himalayan summit.
The international community learned after some delay because communications were hit by torrential rains and heavy snowfall.
Authorities estimate that mudslides and flash floods in the country have claimed the lives of around 60 individuals over the past week.
"It is very unusual for October when we anticipate the skies to remain calm," commented Riten Jangbu Sherpa.
Considering autumn represents the preferred season, regular storms like these have "hampered our mountaineering and mountaineering industry," he continued.
The rainy period in the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan nation usually lasts from June to early autumn, but not anymore.
"Our data shows that most of the annual cycles in the previous ten years have had monsoons lasting until the second week of autumn, which is definitely a change," explained a high-ranking meteorology expert.
Even more worrying is the intense precipitation and snow the concluding phase of the season produces, like it occurred recently on early October.
At elevation in the mountain range, such extreme weather means blizzards and winter storms, which constitutes a significant risk for hiking, mountaineering and the travel industry.
That's what happened recently when the weather shifted quite abruptly - the air currents began howling, temperatures dropped sharply and sightlines dropped significantly.
The path that had comfortably brought the trekkers to what should have been a stunning pitstop was now buried in white accumulation and impossible to navigate.
Nevertheless, one trekker, who had hiked the Himalayas more than a twelve occasions, reported he had "not once experienced weather like these" before.
A primary big driver is the increased quantity of moisture in the air because of how the planet has been warming, scientists say.
This has contributed to heavy precipitation over a short span of time, often after a extended period without rain – unlike in the past when seasonal rains were spread evenly over the entire season.
Weather experts report the rainy seasons in South Asia at occasions appear to have become more intense because they are more frequently interacting with an additional atmospheric phenomenon, the western weather pattern.
This is a low pressure system that forms in the Mediterranean region and moves east - it transports cold air that causes precipitation and occasionally snowfall to the subcontinent, neighboring countries and Nepal.
Researchers have additionally found that in a heating world, the growing interaction between western weather systems and monsoons is causing another atypical result.
The warmer air is forcing the weather systems to greater altitudes, which indicates these weather systems are now capable to cross the mountain barrier and reach the Tibetan plateau and additional areas that previously experienced less as much rain in the past.
"The transformation is the predictability of weather patterns; we cannot presume that situations will occur the identical from season to season," said an seasoned mountain guide.
"That means flexible planning, real-time choices, and knowledgeable guidance [in the Himalayas] have become even more essential."
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