Everest climbers asked to pick up their garbage

Climbers scaling Mount Everest will have to bring back eight kilograms of garbage under new rules, designed to clean up the world’s highest peak, a Nepalese official said yesterday

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

Clean up: Mountaineers will have to pick up rubbish, including oxygen cylinders, human waste and even climbers’ bodies that are strewn atop Mount Everest. Pic/AFP

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.

Decades of mountaineering have taken a toll on the peak, which is strewn with rubbish from past expeditions, including oxygen cylinders, human waste and even climbers’ bodies, which do not decompose in the extreme cold.

Expeditions will have to submit their trash to an office to be set up next month at base camp.

It will also offer medical aid and resolve conflicts, after a brawl between European climbers and local guides last year.

“Our earlier efforts have not been very effective. This time, if climbers don’t bring back garbage, we will take legal action and penalise them,” Burlakoti said.

In an overhaul of security on the mountain, the new office at base camp will station soldiers and police so climbers can approach officers with any problems, officials said last month.

35,000
Approximate number of people that climb Mount Everest annually

$3.3billion
Amount that Nepal earns annually from climbing fees

>> Climbers will have to bring back 8 kg of trash
>> Legal action will be taken against those who fail to do so
>> Step will come into practice from April

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