Mt. Qomolangma (also Mt. Everest), the highest peak in the world, will continue to lead Nepal's campaign to prevent drastic climate changes and their fallouts long after the government's sensational cabinet meeting in the lap of the mountain has stopped making waves.

On Dec. 11, a week after the cabinet meeting at KalaPattar, a plateau over 5,200m above sea level, 30 Nepali climbers who summitted the 8,848m peak in the past will take part in a rally in Copenhagen.

While Dec. 11 is part of the 12-day conference in Copenhagen hosted by the UN on climate change, it is also celebrated as International Mountain Day.

Qomolangma conquerors in full climbing gear will march on the streets of Copenhagen joined by mountaineering luminaries from around the world to draw global attention to the perils faced by the Himalayan ranges due to global warming.

The marchers will include Apa Sherpa, the legendary climber from Nepal who holds the record of having summitted Qomolangma the maximum number of times - 19 - and Austrian Peter Habeler, the first climber along with Reinhold Messner to ascend the world's tallest peak without using bottled oxygen.

The rally will be accompanied by cultural shows by a Sherpa band from northern Nepal, an exhibition of mountain-related photographs and documentaries.

Nepal's private sector, which had rallied behind the government during the cabinet meet near the Qomolangma base camp Friday to meet the expenses, will once again rise to the occasion.

Many partner organizations like the Everest Summiteers Association, Nepal Mountaineering Association, National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal Tourism Board, WWF Nepal, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, and the World Bank are joining the government of Nepal to fund the event.

Just as the cabinet meeting had ended with a 10-point Everest Declaration spelling out the government's plans to save the environment, the summiteers meet in Copenhagen will also make a Himalayas Declaration.

The Himalayan ranges are the "water towers" of Asia, feeding its largest rivers and nourishing hundreds of millions of people downstream. They are also a sanctuary for unique biodiversity.

But with temperatures rising rapidly at higher altitudes, the glaciers on the mighty mountains are melting, changing landscapes and creating glacial lakes, some of which are in danger of bursting their natural dams of rubble and ice.

Should that happen, the unique ecosystems as well as the lives of millions of people living in the mountains and downstream will be menaced. Other manifestations will be drought, flood and the sea level rising.

The summiteers will be asking the world community to focus attention to the challenges of climate change in the Himalayas and downstream, to value their unique contribution to human adventure, global ecology, and regional river systems and to safeguard the Himalayan ecosystems and mountain peoples.