Mt. Everest: A McDonalds Experience
brianlux
Posts: 42,055
Is this merely how a rich person thinks about and treats our world or is it indicative how humans in general interact with our planet? I get the feeling the trashing of Everest is a disgraceful example of a larger problem.
(Side note: my only problem with this article is the use of the term "most unique". There are no degrees of unique. Something is either unique or it is not.)
http://news.yahoo.com/mt-everests-filth ... 00340.html
Mt. Everest's filthy secret: It's a dump
Exhausted climbers have left behind a trail of debris — and lots of excrement
The world this week is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first successful effort to reach the top of the world's highest peak. But environmental activists are using the occasion to call attention to the tons and tons of garbage — and human excrement — that have been left on Mt. Everest's slopes in the decades since Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, made their historic climb. And the picture they are painting isn't pretty.
Here, a look at the mess, by the numbers:
35
Expeditions that try to reach Everest's 29,029-foot peak in a typical year. "There were just people everywhere," one climber, Ayisha Jessa of London, tells the International Business Times.
3,500
Conservative estimate of the number of people who have reached the top in the past 60 years. Everest is no longer "a wilderness experience," says mountaineer Graham Hoyland. "It's a McDonald's experience."
234
Climbers who reached the top of Everest in just one day in 2012.
13
Tons of garbage that the annual Eco Everest Expedition has cleaned up between Everest base camp and the summit since 2008. The refuse littering Everest's slopes includes empty oxygen bottles and torn tents — and lots and lots of human waste. "The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted," climber Mark Jenkins writes in National Geographic, "with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps."
4.4
Tons of garbage picked up this year by a joint Indian-Nepali team, the first of its kind.
2.5
Tons of that garbage classified as "bio-hazardous waste."
1.5
Tons of garbage that was brought down the mountain by climbers and collected by 15 artists from Nepal. They used the haul, which included oxygen cylinders and scraps from a helicopter that crashed into Everest in the 1970s, to make 74 pieces of art. The work is being sold (at prices ranging from $17 to $2,400), and some of the proceeds are going to the Everest Summiteers Association, which collaborated on the project and was the first group to organize an Everest clean-up in 2005.
240
Approximate number of people who have died trying to reach the top. Most of the corpses are still on the mountain, frozen in the "death zone" that starts 26,000 feet up.
4,000
Deposit, in U.S. dollars, that the Nepalese government now requires climbers to pay before heading up the mountain. They risk losing the money if they don't bring down all of their trash.
10
Tons of garbage experts estimate still remains on Everest. "You can't necessarily blame the climbers, especially inexperienced ones, for their littering habit," Jenkins writes in National Geographic. "Even under the best conditions, climbing the tallest mountain in the world is exhausting, dangerous work. Dropping used supplies on the mountain rather than carrying it with them can save vital energy and weight... But the accumulated trash is still steadily ruining one of the most unique places on Earth."
(Side note: my only problem with this article is the use of the term "most unique". There are no degrees of unique. Something is either unique or it is not.)
http://news.yahoo.com/mt-everests-filth ... 00340.html
Mt. Everest's filthy secret: It's a dump
Exhausted climbers have left behind a trail of debris — and lots of excrement
The world this week is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first successful effort to reach the top of the world's highest peak. But environmental activists are using the occasion to call attention to the tons and tons of garbage — and human excrement — that have been left on Mt. Everest's slopes in the decades since Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, made their historic climb. And the picture they are painting isn't pretty.
Here, a look at the mess, by the numbers:
35
Expeditions that try to reach Everest's 29,029-foot peak in a typical year. "There were just people everywhere," one climber, Ayisha Jessa of London, tells the International Business Times.
3,500
Conservative estimate of the number of people who have reached the top in the past 60 years. Everest is no longer "a wilderness experience," says mountaineer Graham Hoyland. "It's a McDonald's experience."
234
Climbers who reached the top of Everest in just one day in 2012.
13
Tons of garbage that the annual Eco Everest Expedition has cleaned up between Everest base camp and the summit since 2008. The refuse littering Everest's slopes includes empty oxygen bottles and torn tents — and lots and lots of human waste. "The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted," climber Mark Jenkins writes in National Geographic, "with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps."
4.4
Tons of garbage picked up this year by a joint Indian-Nepali team, the first of its kind.
2.5
Tons of that garbage classified as "bio-hazardous waste."
1.5
Tons of garbage that was brought down the mountain by climbers and collected by 15 artists from Nepal. They used the haul, which included oxygen cylinders and scraps from a helicopter that crashed into Everest in the 1970s, to make 74 pieces of art. The work is being sold (at prices ranging from $17 to $2,400), and some of the proceeds are going to the Everest Summiteers Association, which collaborated on the project and was the first group to organize an Everest clean-up in 2005.
240
Approximate number of people who have died trying to reach the top. Most of the corpses are still on the mountain, frozen in the "death zone" that starts 26,000 feet up.
4,000
Deposit, in U.S. dollars, that the Nepalese government now requires climbers to pay before heading up the mountain. They risk losing the money if they don't bring down all of their trash.
10
Tons of garbage experts estimate still remains on Everest. "You can't necessarily blame the climbers, especially inexperienced ones, for their littering habit," Jenkins writes in National Geographic. "Even under the best conditions, climbing the tallest mountain in the world is exhausting, dangerous work. Dropping used supplies on the mountain rather than carrying it with them can save vital energy and weight... But the accumulated trash is still steadily ruining one of the most unique places on Earth."
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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Comments
I'm glad I didn't get a lottery permit. Toilet paper everywhere. Trash. And a killer uphill hike that I got to go downhill.
Side note: If anyone is familiar with the area, when I was going over New Army Pass, my heart stopped for a few seconds and I thought to myself calmly "well fuck me, I'm going to die" .... then it started back up. I learned not to push myself so hard after that.
The problems of trash on Everest is not a new one. People have been leaving garbage and oxygen canisters up there for 80 years. For decades there was no pack it in pack it out ethic. But there have been efforts over the last few years to clean up and clear up the mountain.
The big problem is that so much of what has been left behind (garbage, excrement, equipment, bodies) over the decades is being exposed by the receding of the glaciers.
Plus with the advent of adventure tourism there is more and more people making the trek just to Everest basecamp which makes for more people and more stuff stressing the natural and manmade infrastructure.
Check this out to see how things have changed up there... http://www.glacierworks.org/home/
Whitney is a beautiful mountain- I'm sorry (but not surprised) to hear it too has been trashed. Apparently "pack it in, pack it out" doesn't make sense to some people out there.
The pure element of Everest has rotted away so I think it makes sense from a safety standpoint.
The before and after glacier photos are down right alarming. Clear evidence of climate change.
I can see where this would also have an impact on how much Everest trash is exposed though of course having it simply buried in snow doesn't make it go away. I am glad to hear there are some efforts to retrieve some of the trash but the idea that people treat a sacred place such as Everest really bugs me. It says a lot about how many humans view our world.
Wights. Others. The White Walkers.
That has something to do with the Sherpa's religious beliefs i think, it's taboo to touch a dead person and they'll get violent if you try.
it's absolutely tragic what everest has become ... the epicentre of man's insatiable appetite to conquer vs. coexist ...
Maybe those who choose to make the trek (and know they'll be contributing to the trash debacle) contribute likewise to the clean-up?
It seems you have to have quite a bit of disposable income to tackle this trek.
http://business.time.com/2012/01/23/the-economics-of-everest/
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned...
I AM MINE
Still, the second part of my post remains! Rich or otherwise, clean up after yourself.
The article is a bit misleading...
For a lot of the people who attempt to summit Everest they have been climbing and "training" for years if not decades. So the training $ figure is a bit off.
For many they already have the gear as they use it for all or most of their climbs and not just a one off experience. For others they rent the gear. And for a lucky few they have gear sponsors so their is no cost there. So the gear figure is off as well.
Travel is all variable as well as the guides. Plus there are some people who climb solo or with experienced friends so there is no guide charge.
I know someone who successfully climbed Everest last year and he hired 3 Sherpas and used the IMG ropes so his guide cost was minimal.
Do you have to have money to attempt Everest? Yes of course you do as it is all disposable income.
But even a USPS mailman can do it after saving up for the experience. So it is within financial reach of the average person.
Yes, clean up after yourself. Not sure how that was never an expected part of this trek :(
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned...
I AM MINE
Everest... the way things are reading it sounds as if this mountain & other incredibly spiritual locales are common landfills like many us cities or other disgusting shitholes around the globe. the people of Nepal should hire me to slap folks around who return from the hike with debris left on the mountain. I also like the cash deposit they have put in place, bring back your garbage, get your deposit back.
truly if they were into changing shit up, i believe they should shut down climbing for a few years & see how these littering fuckers like that. of course this is my vision and not the Nepalese people's way as they are kinder than i.
basically without a shadow of doubt the human race is garbage & the most cruel & disgusting animals on the planet that have ever lived.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Hail, Hail!!!
First thing they'll do is figure out how to level off the top and put in a McDonalds which will use "Sitting on Top of the World" as their new theme song. But it's all good because they will sell sustainable green hamburgers on organic buns.
(Yes, I'm feeling just a tad cynical at the moment.
:ugeek:
if the writer wanted to be taken seriously, he shouldnt have so obviously inflated numbers
Not all of them are properly trained. And this is a big part the problem.
Damn right. A lot of the climbers these days are just wankers who want to summit the mountain for the sole purpose of boasting to their friends about it, and to add another notch to their C.V's.
I agree, Byrnzie. I was talking with a customer in the bookstore today who, as it turns out, is a mountaineer and he talked about the same thing. He said that is the main reason 10 people died on Everest last year. He described the procession on people climbing that mountain as "a parade", that it has become a quest for mostly rich people who are "hauled up the mountain". It's a joke.
To many of the points people have brought up to this point in time: summiting Everest is for richer people- it costs a ton to not only leave your job for the better part of a year, but to also pay for equipment, guides, and sherpas to pack your shit.
For some highly inadequate adventure enthusiasts- incapable of climbing on their own- they even need their asses wiped. Summiting Everest can be done for the right price. Rich people can pay for sherpas to drag their ass to the summit, take pictures of them at the top of the world, and then return home to throw lavish cocktail parties while entertaining their admiring friends with a slide show of their awesome accomplishment.
The thin air prevents rescue vehicles such as helicopters to come to the rescue of endangered climbers. Climbers in trouble are left to their own means as other climbers will climb right past stricken with summit fever. Rescues are difficult because at the summit people are hypoxic and generally sick and weak- their minds and bodies do not function normally. They can barely manage themselves let alone others. For many of these reasons, people leave their crap on the side of the mountain.
Everest has become commercialized and offers countries surrounding it the opportunity to profit from its appeal. It's likely not going to get better any time soon.
that book breaks my heart. it also strongly enforces why I wont go higher than base camp. I prefer to breath on my own and im kinda attached to my fingers, toes and nose.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
the nepalese and chinese govts for one. they don't let you climb for free.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say