Highest junkyard on face of earth

In 1963 — just 10 years after the first ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide — a fellow climber, Barry Bishop, wrote in National Geographic that parts of the mountain had become “the highest junkyard on the face of the Earth.”

Expedition teams were trashing Everest by wantonly disposing of empty oxygen canisters, torn tents and other rubbish at base camp and just a few thousand feet below the summit, Bishop reported.

Decades later, the world’s tallest peak remains under siege. Dozens of expedition teams attack the summit every year, carrying tons of gear and provisions and enlisting thousands of guides, porters and pack animals. Adding to the pressure on the greater Everest region are growing numbers of tourists who trek for weeks over ancient footpaths to the foot of the mountain, where they gaze up in awe at the roof of the world.

Visitors triple

The Nepalese authorities say that the number of visitors to Sagarmatha National Park, where Everest lies, roughly tripled in the last 20 years, to more than 30,000 in 2008. I recently saw the changes happening firsthand while accompanying a group of nine mostly American climbers (including my father) attempting the summit this spring by the route pioneered by Hillary and Norgay.

Although the mountain remains accessible only by dirt and stone paths, the construction of new buildings, mostly tea houses, “cyber-cafés” and lodges for tourists, is under way in virtually all of the rustic towns on the route to Everest.
At about 17,500 feet, Everest base camp marks the end of the road for trekkers; for climbers, it is just the beginning.

Built, as in years past, amid the rocks, ice and run-off streams of the rapidly retreating Khumbu glacier, the camp’s population this spring includes 250 to 300 foreign climbers and hundreds more guides, cooks and porters.

At base camp, and as they make their way up and down the mountain, these climbers will generate tons of trash and human waste. Changes in recent years are helping bringing this waste stream under control, however. Under new rules, solid waste at base camp must be collected by expedition teams and hauled out by porters or pack animals.

Glass bottles have been banned in Sagarmatha National Park, and a ban on plastic shopping bags is being sought. Trash collection along the route to Everest has also increased dramatically.

“There’s much more garbage, but it’s being much better managed,” said Ang Dorjee, chairman of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a local nonprofit that leads environmental protection efforts in the region.

Problems remain with waste on the upper reaches of Everest, but climbing groups are stepping up efforts to clean house. Several expeditions in recent years have recovered thousands of pounds of trash from the higher, more dangerous Everest camps. And this spring, a 31-member Nepalese-led expedition will attempt to gather two metric tons of trash from the highest reaches of Everest – the notorious “death zone” above 26,000 feet – a historical first.