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It's an 2ambitious scientific project that has taken this team of researchers to the most 3extreme environments on Earth.

"We set up a network of weather stations from 12,500 feet all the way up to 27,000 feet."

Tasked with a single objective to study the impacts of a rapidly changing environment from the world's highest locations.

"Explain to me just the 4ultimate goal of what you are trying to achieve up there."

"Our weather station network is really well 5poised to monitor and provide valuable data to make better 6projections of how the 7glaciers will respond to climate change."

I spoke with National Geographic Explorer and Nevada State 8Climatologist Dr. Baker Perry during his most recent expedition back to Mount Everest.

"We know more about the weather on Mars than we do on the highest peaks of the Himalaya here on our planet."

It's a mission that began in 2019, 9documented by the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition.

"This is critical in the 10context of climate change and water resources — and the fact that we've got hundreds of millions of people that live 11downstream from these water towers that 12sustain the communities."

Vital too for other environmentally stressed regions across the globe — including Argentina, where in February, Dr. Perry led researchers on a similar mission in the Andes to Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas.

The WIWA Project — an international collaboration between the U.S., Argentina and multiple research institutions — installed weather stations along the mountain glaciers to monitor conditions and added a crucial link in collecting 13meteorological information around the world.