A success story of Everest Extreme Expedition (EEE- 2010)

By Rajeev Dangol

Every year more than hundreds of expeditions take place in Mount Everest where approximately 2000 climbers reside on it for more than two months through out the climbing period. In this course, the expedition members willingly or unwillingly create bulks of garbage on Everest. Some manage to bring it down while others leave it haphazardly on the peak to bury in snow with the passing time. The garbage may vary from climbing ropes, empty oxygen cylinders, cans, plastic bottles, chocolate wraps to highly contaminating human waste and dead bodies of the climbers. This process is still continuing from the first ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953 till today, making it a serious environmental issue for the entire mountain tourism fraternity to ponder about.

Previously many clean ups have been carried out to curb or at least ease the problem but these initiatives are falling short when compared to the amount of garbage piled up in years and years of time by hundreds of climbers now and then. One of such recently conducted Everest clean up expedition was Extreme Everest Expedition 2010 (EEE 2010) led by Namgyal Sherpa.

What’s the problem looks like? When asked, the team leader of EEE 2010 Namgyal Sherpa replies, “The situation is alarming. This is becoming only worse every year. With the rapidly melting snow, more and more garbage piled down under ice are emerging rampantly everywhere. The effect of global warming has finally been seen on Everest, creating many small water pools everywhere.”

In 2008, Namgyal the eight times Everest climber was worried by the worsening garbage scenario on Everest and decided to initiate a clean up campaign above 8000m. “Going above 8000m and cleaning up the mountain was truly a challenging job. But all twenty of us, were committed to do our job so we did it successfully,” adds Sherpa. What do you think was the biggest achievement so far of the campaign? He answers, “We managed to bring the five dead bodies down the mountain which were lying unattended for years.”

Out of the five bodies brought down, one was of the Sherpa climber which has already been handed over to their family for the final rites while the other two bodies are of a swiss climber Gianni Goltz and a russian climber boxer Duganov Sergey. Sergey’s body was airlifted off the mountain and sent to Russia immediately after the recovery.  The rest two bodies are still lying in Gorak Shep as they are unrecognizably damaged and yet to be identified. Apart from the dead bodies, the expedition members have managed to bring down 1800 kgs of garbage from the Everest. The Extreme Everest Expedition had all together 32 members, out of them 12 were the crew members and camera crews for the documentary shoot.

Extreme Everest Expedition was aimed at cleaning up Everest in a totally new approach and was a historic event being it perhaps the first such expedition funded by locally owned enterprises that took place from April 25 to June 4. The lead sponsor of the EEE 2010 was Nepal Investment Bank Limited while the co-sponsors were Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Chaudhari Group, Everest Insurance, Surya Nepal, Be Human Nepal and Solu FM. As per plan, six of the expedition team members successfully summited Everest and hoisted the banners of all the sponsors on May 22. Encouragingly, the climbers even on their way down did not forget to wipe out the garbage off the cliff as much as their body allowed.

“This expedition was truly a success in terms of cleaning up the mountain and creating awareness on the local level of the actual garbage situation on Everest. At least two or more such campaigns are needed on every peak including Everest if we are to ensure the pristine environment on and below the mountains. However, the worrying factor is something below it,” he says.

What are the threats posed by polluted mountains? Why the Himalayas have to be clean? Snow capped mountains are the only source of fresh water for us. Polluted mountains mean polluted water and pristine mountains mean fresh and un-contaminated water. If the mountains are left soiled, in future it can lead to many water borne diseases on planet. In view with this, such clean up campaigns do not only ensure the healthy lives below mountains but also create hygienic environment on the mountains for the climbers to enjoy. The polluted environment on the peaks may harass the climber rather enjoy their climbing experience. Not to mention the threat posed by climate change on the Mountain region. Hundreds of new high altitude lakes are forming every year due to rapid retreat and those existing have swollen unimaginably over the years. If such retreat continues, in short period of time all the settlements below the mountain region will be washed away by catastrophic Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).