Climbing
Sherpas have retrieved four dead bodies and 11 TONNES of rubbish in a Mount Everest clean-up as part of a drive to clean up the world’s highest mountain. A clean-up team of 20 Sherpa climbers has brought down five tonnes of litter in from different camps sites above the base camp and another six tonnes from the areas below, said Dandu Raj Ghimire, director general of the Department of Tourism.
The rubbish, along with the bodies of some of the 300 people who have died over the years on Everest’s slopes, is buried under the snow during winter, but become visible when it melts in summer. Climbers returning from the 29,035-foot mountain say its slopes are littered with human excrement, used oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers left behind by climbers.
“Unfortunately, some garbage collected in bags at the South Col could not be brought down due to bad weather,” Ghimire said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nine mountaineers died on the Nepali side of Everest in May while two perished on the Tibetan side, making it the deadliest climbing season since 2015. Nepal this year issued 381 permits to Everest, costing $11,000 each, an important source of income for the cash-strapped nation.
