Everest remains under threat

2003-05-24 09:28

Kathmandu - Mount Everest may have finally lost its dubious nickname as "the world's highest garbage dump," but the ever-growing number of climbers - including those converging on the mountain this month during the golden jubilee of its conquest - still pose a threat.

Since climbers started to make their way to the highest point in the world, the once untouched mountain has become littered with evidence of human conquest - tons of garbage and some of the bodies of the 172 people who failed to reach the peak.

But amid increasing awareness of the pollution and a series of clean-up efforts, the 8 848m mountain is finally being restored to its former state.

"Now the mountain is very clean," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, the official body that deals with the kingdom's major peaks.

"There is no more garbage at the south col," a point at 8 000m that used to be strewn with hundreds of abandoned oxygen bottles. "(And) there are no more bodies on the route," he said.

But that was not always the case. It is estimated that some 50 tons of plastic, glass and metal have been dumped on Everest between its May 29, 1953 conquest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa up to the early 1990s when the problem began to be tackled.

Notably, the Nepalese government in 1993 began imposing fines on any climbers failing to bring back with them oxygen bottles and gas cartridges.

The kingdom also set up a major park in the valley leading to Everest and forbade the cutting down of trees - a practice once common by climbers seeking to warm themselves.

The government and the private sector have also financed a number of clean-up expeditions, often funded by the royalties paid by climbers.

The last such mission collected 2.4 tons of garbage and practically cleared the mountain of oxygen bottles, the expedition leader, Japanese student Ken Noguchi, said on his return to Kathmandu on Friday.

Over four Everest missions since 2000, Noguchi and his team members have removed more than 400 oxygen bottles and seven tons of trash, as well as burying four bodies.

Noguchi said the main source of pollution now is human excrement, particularly at high levels where it is impractical to send down waste in buckets.

Besides changing attitudes, Everest's environment is also benefiting from the growing sophistication of expeditions.

Climbing teams travel more lightly, reducing their garbage output, and have become more conscientious.

"Ten years ago, there was quite a bit of garbage, most of it from expeditions from the 1970s and 1980s. People have changed a lot," Tshering Sherpa said.

Bed Upreti, a pilot of tourist flights around Everest and author of the book "Everest from the Air," said the world's highest mountain has become much more tidy.

But, he added, there was still a lot of work to be done.

"The main problem is that there are more expeditions. If you have 50 expeditions, definitely, garbage will increase automatically," he said.

This season, during the Everest golden jubilee, some two dozen expeditions are climbing the mountain and for climbers sometimes fighting for their very lives, Upreti said, the future preservation of Everest can be a secondary concern.

"When you're cold, tired and have altitude sickness, you just want to save your skin," Upreti said. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA