Piercing the sky at 29,035 feet (8,850m), for many, Mount Everest holds a significance as mysterious and unpredictable as the weather that shrouds its

Tidying up the top of the world

submited by
Style Pass
2023-05-30 05:00:03

Piercing the sky at 29,035 feet (8,850m), for many, Mount Everest holds a significance as mysterious and unpredictable as the weather that shrouds its illustrious peak. For the Sherpas, the tight-knit community whose name has become so deeply synonymous with Himalayan climbing, the mountain is deified—known as Chomolungma in the language of Tibet, the goddess mother of the world. It was she, it is said, who allowed Nepali Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary to reach the summit over six decades ago, and no subsequent mountaineer shall succeed for themselves without her blessing.

But ever since Norgay and Hillary performed the impossible, that same achievement is sought by so many that an increasing amount of litter is finding its way up the world’s highest mountain. Every year thousands of visitors make the trek through Sagarmatha National Park to the mountainside, with over 600 of them going on to attempt the summit. Around 90 percent of these visitors are guided clients, many of them novices who lack basic climbing skills, although responsible expedition organizations ensure that. Any client who lacks ability is either turned away or sent back down to safety should they begin to struggle. Thanks to this expert guidance, many do reach the summit, but the paths they tread aren’t as pristine as they once were.

The two most common routes to the top, the North Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are flecked with discarded items dropped during more than 9,000 successful summit climbs, as well as countless other attempts. Most visiting climbers have at least one local expedition staffer assigned to them who cooks, assists, and carries life-sustaining equipment. These guides are usually Sherpa, the ethnic group who have been essential to successfully scaling the Himalayas. Originating in eastern Tibet, Sherpa people began migrating to Nepal in the 15th century, and since then climbers have relied on their knowledge of the Himalayan region to ascend Everest safely. The entire expedition takes around two months; the majority of that time is spent acclimatizing to the altitude in a series of ascending camps—all the while each individual produces around 18 pounds of trash.

Leave a Comment