Trash Talk

environment, mountaineering, Mt. Everest | dlacord | Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 12:03 pm

Nearly 18,000 pounds. That’s how much trash a team of 29 Nepali mountaineers brought down from Mount Everest this spring in a ground-breaking expedition. According to the International Business Times, the group collected oxygen cylinders, tents, climbing gear and helicopter parts with the help of 75 yaks and 76 porters. The trash on Everest has been an ongoing problem for years. In 1990, the International Peace Climb, with local climber Wayne Baughman, was on the mountain in a monumental trash-collection project. At that time, the Nepal Mountaineering Association determined the mountain held about 60 tons of garbage. The IB Times reports that it’s now thought that 120 tons of trash are left behind each year by climbers.

– Deb Acord

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