Nepal to force Everest climbers to collect rubbish

[The Straight Story]

Kathmandu: Climbers scaling Mount Everest will have to bring back eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of garbage under new rules designed to clean up the world's highest peak, a Nepalese official said Monday.

The rule, one of several new measures for mountaineering in the Himalayan nation, will apply to climbers ascending beyond Everest's base camp from April onwards, said tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti.

"The government has decided in order to clean up Mount Everest, each member of an expedition must bring back at least eight kilos of garbage, apart from their own trash," he said.

Burlakoti said authorities would take legal action against climbers who failed to comply with the new rule, although it was unclear whether this would involve a fine or other penalty.


http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/nepal-to-force-everest-climbers-to-collect-rubbish-490652

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good

[RiffRandell]

2. They should. nt

[Jenoch]

3. There a couple hundred bodies up there in addition

to the trash and human excrement.

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. good

although most of them will probably just pay their Sherpas to do it for them..

[Hekate]

23. The point is just to get it done and change the climbing culture, not punish people...

... who didn't make the original mess themselves. So whether these extremely expensive tourists pick up previous climbers' rubbish or direct their Sherpas to do so, it doesn't matter as long as it gets done and everyone comes away with the message: No More Littering.

[WhiteTara]

5. This is wonderful. This shouldn't be a dumping ground

for climbers.

[jimlup]

6. As a climber I applaud this move

I practice leave no trace. Everyone should...

This will put an additional burden on some of the Everest climbers but I can only view that as a good thing. The mountain has become much too crowded.

[Scootaloo]

7. If they can carry the junk up the mountain, they can carry it back down

Seems simple enough to me

[jimlup]

8. Actually it is harder than it sounds

Many clients don't carry anything but their own personal stuff up. The sherpas do all the real work for many of the teams. My guess is that with some of the teams a sherpa will be hired to go up to camp 1 and bring down N times 8kg+1 and then will pass the trash off to his N clients right after they finishing descending most of the ice fall.

But still it is a step in the right direction.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. Sounds like a win-win situation.

More employment for Sherpas, and the garbage still gets down off the mountain.

[questionseverything]

11. my family has climbers,no mountains but cliffs and rocks

I have gone on trips with them and EVERY climber I ever met was no trace

so I am surprised this is necessary but whatever it takes to keep these majestical spots clean

[theHandpuppet]

9. About damn time

Selfish, self-absorbed jerks should clean up after themselves.

[busterbrown]

10. It seems to me that this requirement might endanger climbers for obvious reasons...

Even though I am qualified to say what they are,..However, why not add an extra $100 beyond all other expenses and simply add it on to each climber’s total.... Certainly one would think that for a good couple of days pay there would be plenty of locals who would volunteer..

[Skidmore]

12. So climbers would be endangered but the locals wouldn't.

I don't follow that at all. It's not obvious. If everyone picked up some of the garbage they take up and return with it, then the load is distributed.

[jimlup]

17. Descending Everest is actually a pretty precarious situation...

Most accidents happen on descent. While some climbers are just careless and reckless others leave stuff because of the need to descend immediately.

Presumably there would be some allowance for emergency situations, etc. I think it is probably a good idea. It depends to some extent on how much stuff is actually up there and whether it is feasible for a climber to add 8 kg to a pretty heavy load of gear and shit. (Yeah, unfortunately when you climb peaks and practice "leave no trace" you have to carry it ALL down.)

[Skidmore]

25. I still fail to see why it

would somehow be less dangerou force's the locals who would be expected to shoulder their own risk and that of others al local so. If a local is injured providing support for the recreational adventures of others, who steps in to make sure that he receives care and his family receives support?

[jimlup]

27. On Everest most climbers follow a climber code which basically is that everyone is equal...

But the truth of the ultra-high altitude peaks is that the Sherpa people are far better adapted to altitude in general than everyone else there. It has been scientific shown that they have a unique gene which is at least partially responsible for this adaptation.

Still the recreational climbers hire the Sherpas specifically to haul the loads. This has been the case on the Himalayan mountains since climbing them became a "recreation." Climbing Sherpas are "rock stars" in their villages. I know one Sherpa who has moved to America so that his children can go to school here. He leads AAI's Everest climb every year. In '09 he held the record for fastest climb to the summit from base camp. During summit attempts he essentially plants himself on the summit while the clients are moved up through the final stages of the climb.

Most climbers pride themselves on carrying their own weight but on Everest it is a team "expedition" style climb (in all but the most extreme cases) and thus the strongest do the work and are paid well for it. When someone gets into trouble, be they Sherpa or not, everyone pitches in to try and get them down safely.

[jimlup]

28. Omicron sucks

if Trump was in charge the world would be ending now. It is not. That is all!

[FSogol]

14. They used to run a expedition each year just designed to pick up the trash.

That used to be the easiest way for a experienced, but poor/unsponsored mountaineer to climb there.

Most of the commercial groups will just pay the fine.

[obxhead]

15. I do the beach, not the mountains

but I ALWAYS try to pack out more than I bring in. As I spend my day on the beach I'll pick up any trash I see in my vicinity and in my trash bag it goes.

I'm glad to see the government forcing people to do their part to help clean it up.

[hunter]

16. They should just build a hotel at the bottom and a funicular to the top.

That would discourage the "mountaineer" litterbugs from climbing.

What kind of accomplishment is it to reach the top of Everest to see grandma-with-a-walker smiling and waving at you from the window of a pressurized observation deck?

Or to stand in the open air on the "roof of the world" just to have your photo taken with a bunch of impostor "climbers" freshly emerged from an airlock?

( edited repeat of a previous post here )


I'm not healthy or wealthy enough to climb Everest and I wouldn't do it even if I was.

But mostly I have zero respect for litterbugs, especially of this sort. I hate finding other people's shit in the back country. Especially when it's actually shit!

Climbing Everest has "jumped the shark."

[Recursion]

22. Hillary said something like that just before he passed away

I think it's a fair point. I've never climbed it, but I do climb, and Everest isn't a technically challenging mountain (by the two common ascents, with the fixed ropes and the ladder on the band), though it's still not remotely easy from a conditioning standpoint. Oddly enough Lhotse right next to it is rated as much more difficult and respected a lot more among "real" climbers...

I mean, hell, if Brian Blessed can do it?

[jberryhill]

26. It's still an accomplishment for some...

[phil89]

18. Maybe they should collect the bodies that have been

frozen there for decades. Gotta love the fact that having some money means you can use the mountain as a dumpster, let people die and just keep climbing...bizarre.

[PowerToThePeople]

20. Very strange indeed.

[jsr]

19. Good. It's long overdue.

[Recursion]

21. They try this every few years

People always do it for a season or two and then it gradually tapers off. Hopefully they can find a way to make things stick.

Also, hopefully China will start doing this on the north approach (though China has been much better about removing refuse from the northern base camp, in fairness).

[Cha]

24. Yeah, I would have hoped they would have collected it without

be told to.