Mounds of rubbish are being left on the Himalayas by climbers, with one local mountaineer revealing the “dirtiest camp” he has ever seen.
Tenzi Sherpa posted a video of the camp on Mount Everest covered with “tents, empty oxygen bottles, steel bowls, spoons, sanitation pads, and paper”.
The climber, who scaled the Himalayas under a week ago, said he felt “so sad every time” when on expeditions in the mountain range.
A native of the Himalayan region, he blames “companies” for leaving their “trash on [the] mountain [which is] hard to clean”.
He called for the government to punish companies who he claims “cut” their logos from equipment before leaving it behind on the mountain for others to clean up.
Speaking to The Times, Luc Boisnard, a conservationist with the goal of cleaning the peaks, said the Himalayas had turned into a gigantic rubbish dump.
The 53-year-old took part in an expedition that cleared 3.7 tonnes of rubbish off the world’s fifth-highest summit of Makalu, and the tenth-highest in Annapurna.
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Mr Boisnard, who described the Himalayas as a “real tip”, said: “Behind every rock you find lots of oxygen bottles, tins, canvas and shoes. It’s really appalling.”
He added that climbers “threw [rubbish] into the Himalayan glaciers, from where it will re-emerge in 200 years’ time”.
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He’s part of The Himalayan Clean-Up, to rid the mountains of waste but also to understand who the main polluters were.
The organisation’s zero-waste event this year – where the rubbish is being collected by volunteers – advises against single-use plastic packaging and recommends bringing reusable bottles and cutlery, using cardboard, cloth or paper for banners, and using non-disposable gloves.
Around 800 people attempt to summit Mount Everest every climbing season.
