How dirty is Everest? The Everest Clean up Debate
A debate about dirty mountains is a good thing. And no, Everest is not the only mountain with rubbish in the world, the problem well spread.
As the highest mountain in the world, Everest will always get more attention than others. So Everest is chosen to be cleaned, more than others. Some expeditions just do it to get attention and funding to climb it, others really try to do something good. It’s easy to question all these initiatives, and perhaps, the money spend by climbers to climb a mountain, could be spend more wisely. But if we raise that question, then everything we do for our own entertainment can be questioned isn’t it? Where do we draw the line then?
I personally don’t think that it’s a good idea to say to climbers: “don’t climb anymore because you destroy the mountain”. I think it’s better to get a dialogue started about how the climbing community could minimize their impact and perhaps, spread awareness about even more important issues and raise money to support local problems. If a team of Everest climbers is able to get funding for this, then that might be a good thing. Even if personal interest get mixed up. Or does it makes some of us jealous because we spend so much private money on our own expeditions?
Anyway, there are many people trying to do something good. Perhaps the road to perfection is difficult and unclear, but at least there are some people trying to make the world a better place. Let’s not just drop a few firm and populist phrases here, it’s better to start a real dialogue! We all know the famous words of our favorite Asian philosopher: “every journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step”. Let’s just do that and keep this dialogue going…
More info? See: http://www.muchbetteradventures.com/news/view/168/how-dirty-is-everest-the-everest-clean-up-debate
Press release Everest Cleaning Project 2010
A short summary of 2 months carrying down garbage by our Sherpa team during the Mt Everest clean up expedition last Spring…!
What’s upcoming…?
While most Everest summitters around the Globe are slowly getting back to their ‘normal’ life again, the organizers of the EEE cleaning expedition are still fulltime occupied with their successful expedition last spring. Coming Friday a press conference is scheduled to share their results, past and coming activities with us all.
In the mean time 60 pictures of the clean up activities have been selected which will be exhibited next month in one of Kathmandu’s major art galleries. Apart from that, Nepali artists and 1 French artist have started to blossom their creativity to make something extraordinary of the garbage that was brought back to Kathmandu. Their ‘rubbish art’ 
will be available to show from coming November. For those who are in Kathmandu this November, come and have a look…! (address details will follow)
Garbage well delivered in Kathmandu
Some time has passed, so several updates to give you!
The second team indeed summited May 23rd, while sweeping many Kgs of mainly old rope, tents and oxygen cylinders. In total 1800kg has been brought down to the BC, apart from the 2 dead bodies which were brought to and picked up at camp 2.
Of this pile of garbage, 1000kg of disposable rubbish has been left in Namche where it will be processed. The remaining 800kg has been flown back to Kathmandu last week.
Interesting detail… May 29 the Hillary-Tenzing marathon has been held; all the way from BC to Namche. Several runners did show their valuable support to this clean up expedition by taking a special designed bag with them, loaded with 2 kg of ‘our’ garbage. Two of our Sherpas (Pasang C and Kurma) even joined these running heroes, showing that they are real athletes… They were actually the only two who had ‘ran’ from 8848m all the way to Namche ! So from here, we would like to thank all ‘garbage pickers’ for their prestige!
The coming weeks art students will make some interesting pieces and creatures of these materials and exhibit the result in a local gallery. We’ll keep you updated where you have to go!
Also, 100 pictures of the expedition and rubbish will be shown at an exhibition soon from now. The exact dates and location… you still get it from us.
Cleaning up Mt Everest; is it any use?
For a long time, climbing expeditions have been leaving (some) used gear (tents, oxygen, wrapping materials, etc) behind on Everest or other mountains. So there are ‘cleaning up expeditions’ so now and then. Are these expeditions a good idea? What do you think? And what about de dead bodies? Should they be removed, too?
Like you now by now, we’re involved in a major clean up expedition of Mt Everest in the next month’s. It has been a huge struggle to get the government and the private sector involved. Yes, for financial reasons, but to make the right decisions and policies about this matter. We’ll see how it goes, at least it’s already a huge experience!
Mountain Consult supports Everest Cleaning Expedition 2010
Mt Everest, with 8848m, the highest mountain on the planet. A living goddess for different religions and cultures. This beautiful mountain is also known as the highest pile of garbage in the world. Now, let’s say that this is a bit exaggerated, but it’s true that many international mountaineering expeditions and climbers have left their used and broken gear through the years. We’re talking about tents, oxygen bottles, gas cylinders, wrapping materials, climbing rope, etc. Besides the garbage, several dead bodies still remain at different places on the mountain. The Nepalese people are aware of it, they don’t like it and they feel embarrassed. With the tourism year of 2011 ahead, one experienced high altitude Sherpa decided to do something about it…
Namgyal Sherpa, the Nepalese project director, has been leading a project team of highly driven Nepalese professionals to setup this new cleaning expedition. Their goal? To clean up everything above the death zone (8000m). That’s easier said than done, in fact, it’s a very difficult undertaking at a very extreme altitude. That’s why they called it the Extreme Everest Expedition.
The expedition is planned in April/May/June 2010 and 20 experienced climbing Sherpa’s are included. There is only one ‘but’… and that’s the money. Will they be able to get enough money to finance this national project? Yes, the government and private companies are already involved, but it’s still a long way…
We’ll be in Kathmandu and on Everest as independant reporters to write about this great Sherpa initiative. Let’s see how it goes and let us know what you think!
Administrator
Eveline Wessels
