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Chapter 25: Don't mess around

Helping to clean up our planet is something that is close to my heart. We start small by teaching our children to clean up after themselves, to pick up a piece of paper and not just walk over it. Leave a place better than you found it. 

The Everest region has been under the microscope for a few years now and has been showing severe signs of wear and tear. Decades of climbing has turned the Everest region into a garbage dump, strewn with rubbish, abandoned tents, rope, hundreds of depleted oxygen cylinders, human waste that threatens drinking water and even bodies. 

A 45-day "Everest Cleaning Campaign" began on 14th April, 2019. The month-and-a-half clean-up campaign is supported by a number of governmental and non-governmental agencies. A team of volunteers collected three metric tons of garbage from the mountain in just the first two weeks of cleanup. That's about the weight of a large male hippo.  Due to the impact of climate change and global warming, snow and glaciers are fast melting and dead bodies are increasingly being exposed and discovered by climbers. More than 200 mountaineers have died on the peak since 1922, when the first climbers' deaths on Everest were recorded. The majority of bodies are believed to have remained buried under glaciers or snow. A bit morbid I know, but that is the harsh reality and amazing Sherpas risk their lives to carry the bodies down. This year’s haul from an estimated 700 climbers, guides and porters on the mountain, left ethnic Sherpas who worked on the government’s clean-up drive this spring, in shock. The Nepalese who regard the mountain as “Sagarmatha,” or Mother of the World, found the situation disgraceful.


It is impossible to know exactly how much litter is spread across Everest because it only becomes visible when the snow melts. At Camp 2, two levels higher than Base Camp, the campaigners believe that around 8,000kg of human excrement was left during this year’s climbing season alone. Some climbers do not use makeshift toilets, instead digging a hole in the snow, letting the waste fall into small crevasses. However, rising temperatures have thinned the glacier, leaving fewer and smaller crevasses. The overflowing waste then spills downhill toward Base Camp and even to the communities below the mountains, leaving the water contaminated. People living at Base Camp use melted snow for drinking water.  An estimated 30 tents had been left on Camp 4 (South Col) at 8000m, and as much as 5,000kg of trash. Bringing it down is a herculean task when any misstep or high wind could be fatal at such altitudes. 

On the Everest Base Camp trek, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee has now also successfully completed construction of 20 garbage bins between 2018 and 2019 in the Everest region. 

I knew of the cleanup project before I arrived in Nepal, so I was curious to see what I would find. Base Camp was relatively clean and I saw little rubbish on the trek. The human waste issue can surely be addressed and the government should mandate the use of biodegradable bags on all treks. 


We came across the SPCC newly installed bins which are of great help. I took part in an amazing initiative that allows trekkers coming down the mountain to collect broken-down plastic pellets in a bag and help carry waste off the mountain this way (see photo).  We all can help and contribute in even the smallest way. A mindset to leave a place in a better condition than you found it is a great principle. If you are trekking to Base Camp, make sure to help pick up any rubbish along your way and on your way back, collect your “Carry Me Back” bag from Namche at the stupa just before you leave. You can take as many bags as you want. There are drop-off points inside and just outside Lukla airport with signs everywhere. Bring biodegradable bag for when nature calls. 


Let's help clean up our planet and teach the next generation how to do the same.

Let’s be the example. 

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