Everest cleanup drive clears 11 tons of garbage

KATHMANDU: A expedition launched by the Nepal government to clean Mount Everest has removed 11,000 kg of garbage from the world’s highest peak, told the officials on June 5.
Danduraj Ghimire, an official from Tourism Department, Nepal said that the cleaners spent weeks collecting food wrappings, cans, bottles and empty oxygen cylinders.

According to the officials the campaign was successful, but there is a lot more that is needed to be removed and cleaned from the climber’s track. Though the campaign was successful, but officials are not able to estimate the total amount of garbage present on the mountain as some of the garbage is covered by snow and will only be exposed when temperature rises.

Most of the garbage collected from the Everest was found near Camp 2 and 3, at which climbers can rest along the way from the base camp to the 8,850 meter (29,035-foot) summit.

Hundreds of climbers and their guides and porters spend weeks on Everest every spring, the best climbing season. A tent city rises at the base camp at 5,300 meters (17,400 feet) for three months between March and May.