Karela glacier

Karula glacier

synonym

Karola glacier generally refers to Karola glacier

Karola glacier is located at the junction of Langka county and Jiangzi County in Shannan area of Tibet, about 71 km away from Jiangzi county. It is one of the three major continental glaciers in Tibet and the source of the eastern Nianchu river.

Geography

After crossing the 4330 meter smira pass, he came to the ice tongue of the Karola glacier. The front of the glacier tongue is 5560 meters above sea level. The place where the Karola glacier is seen is about 5400 meters above sea level. The area about 5600 meters north of the pass is a suspended glacier formed by the southward drift of Ningjin Kangsha peak glacier.

Landscape features

One of the four snow mountains in Tibet is jingangsang. Like a beauty dressing quietly, Karola looks into the mountains. It is reported that in Tibet, the closest to the highway is the Karola glacier, which is only 300 meters away from the highway. Karola glacier is located at the junction of Langka county and Jiangzi County, 71 km away from Jiangzi county. Naijingangsang is the main peak of Laguigangri mountain, north of Himalayas. It is said that it is the place where the four mountain gods of Tibetan Buddhism, the Western Mountain God nuojikonwa sangbu, live. There are more than 10 peaks more than 6000 meters around naijingangsang, which is one of the four snow mountains in Tibet. The mountain is majestic and the dangerous rocks are steep. There are more than 116 glaciers nearby, with an area of 118.82 square kilometers. Karola glacier is one of the largest glaciers with an area of 9.4 square kilometers.

Karola glacier is located on the south slope of naiqinkangsang (7191m), one of the four peaks in Tibet. The upper part of the glacier is a relatively gentle ice cap, and the lower part is two ice tongues in the form of suspended glaciers. The East Glacier tongue is 3 km long, 750 m wide and 5233 m high at the end; the West glacier tongue is 4.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 5145 m high at the end. The glacier covers an area of 9.4 square kilometers.

Because of the undulation of bedrock hills in the glacier front, the top of the slowly moving ice layer in the front of the glacier tongue is cracked. Ice and snow melt along the ice sheet, forming a magnificent forest of ice towers. In the ice tower forest, due to the alternation of snow and dust, there are all kinds of strange convolutions in the shape of clouds, just like the patterns carefully carved by a skillful craftsman. On the bedrock ice erosion platform in front of the glacier tongue, several parallel wedge-shaped scratches with a length of more than 10 meters, a width of 10-20 cm and a depth of 8-10 cm can be seen, which is a rare sign of other glaciers, such as a "bed breaking" guideway.

The huge glacier extends from the misty place on the top of the mountain to the roadside only a few hundred meters away from the road. In the crystal clear blue, it brings a cool feeling. Although the glacier is black-and-white stratified due to the influence of dust on the road for many years, the upper part of the glacier is shining like a giant Thangka hanging on the mountain wall in the sunshine.

Because the films "the Red River Valley", "the battle of Gyangze" and "the ballad of clouds and water" have been shot on location here, the Karola glacier is very famous. Therefore, many tourists will watch the spectacular glacier here and admire the charm of nature.

However, it is a pity that in order to create a real avalanche situation during the shooting of Red River Valley, explosives were used to blow up a triangular gap on the Karola glacier, which can be clearly seen by tourists during the tour. As one of the famous ancient glaciers, the gap of Karola glacier will never be filled again.

And it is worth noting that with the aggravation of the greenhouse effect, the snow line of the Karola glacier will move up a great distance every year. Whether the Karola glacier will exist in a few years is a very worrying problem.

Traffic information

Self driving:

Jiangzi County

1. From the starting point to the East, drive 640 meters along Weiguo road and turn right into Huancheng South Road

2. Drive 690 meters along Huancheng South Road and turn left to enter S307

3. Drive 70.3km along S307 to the terminal (on the left side of the road) Karola glacier

Address: Jiangzi County, Xigaze, Tibet Autonomous Region, China

Longitude: 90.165374

Latitude: 28.895184