Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Nepal says litterbugs no longer welcome on Everest

Nepal Says Litterbugs No longer Welcome On Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Litterbugs, beware: Nepal is making new rules to persuade trekkers to clean up after themselves on Mount Everest, in the hopes of clearing the tons of rubbish now clogging the world's highest peak.

Starting this spring, Nepali officials at Everest base camp will check that each climber descends the mountain with approximately 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of trash — the amount the government estimates an exhausted climber discards along the route.

More here

Hmmm. I'm sure when many hikers consider the option of dying or discarding weight to make it back down they will choose to throw the stuff down.

A Win-Win situation: 1)The mountain gets cleaned up, and 2)The Nepalize porters and men who risk their lives hauling guided customers up and down; will probably get paid more to collect the trash of the commercial operations.

What's the big deal, Everest can handle an infinite amount of trash, just like our atmosphere. No worries, what could go wrong? Just keep piling it up...

The good news is they cut fees for the individual climber from $25K to $11K, which will entice more climbers with more trash each year. If they don't come back with 18 lbs of trash, so what, the penalty is less than the fee cut.

SN

it will be interesting disgusting to see how much has piled up since 2000 when I go back there this fall.

About time they we did it.

It has been done elsewhere. When I was on Aconcagua in 1998, our team of two was given a big burlap farm bag each at the Park entrance. After our descent, we had to show the bag AND they weighed it. - if not full of trash, then a big fine. I think it may have been $200. We were told it had been a highly simple yet highly successful program.

On the flip side, the demands are different. Compare these two peaks and their respective 2 week vs 6 week trash loads:
A : 20 mile walk from 8,000 to 14,000 ft basecamp, then 22,800 ft summit. No O2 bottles needed (hah!) or piling up.
E: much longer walk in, and higher basecamp. much more of a "pyramid" of people and supplies for support , not even considering the O2 bottles, dead bodies, the kitchen sink, and other stuff frozen in place.

I say this not to defend leaving trash, but just to point out the additional difficulty. Clean up must start.
Here is a respected Everest chronicler's blog on some of the problems:
Nepal cleanup 2014

Harvey,

fa·ce·tious
[fuh-see-shuhs]
1.not meant to be taken seriously or literally: a facetious remark.
2.amusing; humorous.

Of course I don't want trash to pile up on Everest. I wish people would think the same way about putting billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, but that's for another thread (an and endless one at that - so let's not actually start one).

Just pointing out the absurdity in this plan. The penalty for not bringing back trash is $4,000 for an entire 7-person group, which sounds like a lot until you read that they're cutting fees from $25,000 to $11,000 to entice even more individual trophy hunting climbers. So a person can leave all their trash behind and still pay less than last year. Time will tell which way it goes - whether they collect enough trash to offset the greater number of climbers who might still leave trash.

yes, the sarcasm was noted, at least definition #1. We both pointed out difficulties of a cleanup scheme. Different styles.

you may like this
Sarcasm Society

Good one. No #2 ?