Mount Everest was climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 who were the first to reach the summit. It's the highest peak in the world at 29,029-foot. Since then others have tried to repeat the feat and while some have succeeded, at least 300 have lost their lives. It was possible to recover some of the bodies, others are now coming to the surface because global warming has led to the melting of glaciers, according to a story carried by CNN. This, in turn, has exposed those long lost bodies of mountaineers that, until now, had been preserved by the freezing temperatures.

Along with them are huge volumes of litter consisting of empty cans, bottles, plastic and discarded climbing gear.

Daily Mail UK reports that the governments of Nepal and China are aware of the problem and are working to tackle the issue. They have deputed teams to collect it in a cleanup and the amount of rubbish they have collected so far adds up to around three tons. The clean-up operation reveals the scant regard travelers have for the Environment.

The cleanup was long overdue

Nepal's tourism department is handling this operation since it relates to Travel.

Dandu Raj Ghimire, the chief, has indicated that “The clean-up campaign team has just started and members have ascended to higher camps to collect more garbage.” Helicopters are used to shift the collected items to the capital Kathmandu for recycling. Other biodegradable wastes are moved to another location for disposal. The members break up into smaller groups and engage in the operation.

Daily Mail UK goes on to add that such activities have been going on for several years.

In May 2010, the collection was around 1,800 kilograms. In order to encourage climbers to bring down the litter, the government of Nepal implemented a $4,000 rubbish deposit per team. The teams can claim a refund if each climber brings down at least 18 pounds of waste from the mountain. However, the response was not as per expectations. China also imposed restrictions by banning non-climbers from accessing its Everest base camp in Tibet in order to ensure cleanliness for their side of the mountain. Incidentally, until now, more than 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest and 807 of them reached the summit last year.

Results of commercial mountaineering

According to Times Live, humans have left mounds of litter on Mount Everest in their quest for the glory of having climbed the highest peak in the world.

This is proof that they are least bothered about the wellbeing of the environment. The pathetic condition is a result of decades of commercial mountaineering that have left the mountain polluted because the number of big-spending climbers who travel here is on the rise and they leave behind their ugly footprints in the form of trash.

This year’s climbing season kicked off last month, and the government of Nepal has deputed a team to collect and bring back the trash from the mountains. The team has collected items like empty cans, bottles, and plastic apart from discarded climbing gear from the base camp and surrounding areas where climbers prepare and acclimatize themselves before embarking on their mission.
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