The year is 1953 and on the 29th of May, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay make history by becoming the first people to summit of the infamous Mount Everest. The accomplishment of this previously insurmountable feat left a huge impression on the global imagination; Hillary and Norgay had boldly gone where no man had gone before (excuse the star trek reference) and the world’s interest was piqued. In the decades to follow, generations of ambitious climbers would try their hand at conquering the earth’s most treacherous peak; prepared to pay between 11 and 120 thousand dollars (and potentially their lives) for the opportunity to test their mettle. In spite of the lives Everest claims each year, future climbers are undeterred; proving yet again that once a gauntlet has been thrown down, humans will run it, just to see if they can.
This intrinsic human need to defeat nature has been financially beneficial for the country of Nepal, for whom Mount Everest is by far the most significant tourist attraction. The need for experienced guides provides employment for the Sherpa population, and according to a 2014 article in The Guardian entitled “Nepal slashes cost of climbing Everest”, Everest climbing fees alone account for 3.3 million dollars in annual revenues. The country enthusiastically welcomes climbers and values the business they bring, but as we have seen so many times before, there is often a downside to increased tourist interest. In this case, the problem is a smelly one.
This colossus of a mountain is filthy; covered with decades of trash and human waste. As mountaineer Mark Jenkins stated in a 2013 National Geographic interview, “The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps.” Though some might wish to blame the early climbers, from the 50s through to the late 80s, for their laissez-faire attitude and unenlightened views on pollution, the truth is that the rates of pollution have increased dramatically in recent years. This is primarily due to rise in annual visitors over the last decade (more than double the number of climbers since 2005); a number which is expected to spike now that Nepal has implemented their incentive plan to cut ascension prices.
The issue now becomes a tug of war between the economic needs of the nation and the environmental recovery needs of the mountain. The mass pollution is clearly a significant problem that needs to be seriously addressed but owing to the heavy tourist traffic, the government-mounted garbage retrieval expeditions cannot hope to keep up. Short of closing the peaks for several years to allow for recovery, it seems unlikely that the problem can ever be fully taken in hand, however such a closure would be devastating to the local economy; putting tens of thousands of Nepalese out of work.
What has now been put in place as a halting measure, is a strict enforcement of climber trash removal. It has been estimated that the average climber, exhausted from the effort, will discard 8kg of garbage along the way. What the new regulations require, is that every climber return with a minimum of 8kg (18lbs) of trash, and a failure to comply results in a $4000 fine. The hope is that this “bring back what you brought up” method will manage to slow the accumulation of additional waste which may allow them to make greater headway with the removal of existing waste. With any hope, this will prove to be an effective strategy, or else the unfortunately appropriate nickname “the world’s highest garbage dump” may be this wonder of nature’s final claim to fame.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/nepal-slashes-cost-climbing-mount-everest
cover photo from: http://www.metro.co.uk/
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