Newscasts - Too warm for ice hockey: why one Pakistani valley rues climate change

S-Pool

27/02/2026 07:02

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Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: Winters in Pakistan’s northern mountains are arriving later and behaving unpredictably. In Hunza, that shift has left an outdoor rink unusable, and exposed how vulnerable the region’s people and economy are to climate change. Joshua Lim has more.

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Video Transcript:

Alina Gul gazes out at the pool beside her home in Pakistan's Hunza Valley. In past years, it would transform into a makeshift ice hockey arena. This winter, it hasn't properly frozen over. Gul says the late arrival of cold weather is to blame.

If we see, there's a big difference between 2018 and now in 2026. Winter used to begin in November, and everything would freeze. It's January now, and the ice still hasn't frozen properly.

Scientists in the wider Hindu Kush-Himalayan region report fewer extreme cold events and shorter snow seasons where snowfall fails to settle. Weather data for Hunza shows winter precipitation down by about 30% since the late 2010s, with some recent winters also two to three degrees warmer. That's a problem for a region reliant on visitors, with winter tourism there now at the mercy of cold weather that may never come. The community‑run ice hockey tournament depends entirely on natural ice. For eight seasons now, Gul's pool has hosted the contest. With that unusable, organizers scrambled to find a replacement rink. Eventually locating one nearly two hours north, in a town near the Chinese border. Although the arena there was usable, the ice was difficult to skate on.

I expected better ice conditions, but when I saw the rink, I felt a bit sad. Many of our players fell. The surface had too many bumps and wasn't strong.

Of three matches scheduled for the first day, only one went ahead.

We were ready by 9:00AM this morning. The match was expected to take place. When we reached the rink, the ice wasn't in good condition. Teams still played, but it was very difficult. The boys' match took place, not ours, the girls. These things are unexpected, and this is a side effect of climate change. We've never experienced this before.

That night, organizers used shovels to prepare the ice for the next day's game. Gul’s team was finally able to play and emerged victorious.