Tibetan north side of Mount Everest

The expedition operators in Nepal might have been so shocked that they dropped their pencils. In the “New Regulations for Foreign Expeditions 2019” in Tibet (available to me) it says under point 6: “In order to ensure the healthy and orderly development of mountaineering and minimize the occurrence of mountaineering accidents, mountaineering teams which were organized in Nepal temporarily will not be accepted.” As I have learned from a reliable source, a delegation from Nepal immediately traveled to China to have this regulation removed or at least weakened. Apparently the delegates of the Nepali operators were at least partially successful. Some agencies, however, are supposedly to receive no more approval. The Chinese and Tibetan Mountaineering Associations announced to cooperate in future only “with expedition companies with good social reputation, strong ability of team formation, logistic support, reliable service quality, excellent professional quality, and (who are) law-abiding”.

One client, one Sherpa

Garbage cans in Everest Base Camp

From spring 2019 onwards, every client commercial expeditions on one of the Tibetan eight-thousanders will have to be accompanied “by a Nepalese mountain guide”. There are also new regulations regarding environmental protection and mountain rescue. For example, each summit aspirant on Everest will have to pay a “rubbish collection fee” of 1,500 US dollars, on Cho Oyu and Shishapangma 1,000 dollars each. Nepalese mountain guides will be exempted from this fee, as well as the base camp staff. In addition, all members bar none will be required after the expedition to hand in eight kilograms of garbage per person from the mountain to the responsible Chinese liaison officers in the base camp.

Rescue team in ABC

In future, a team provided by the Tibetan authorities and the local operator “Tibet Yarlha Shampo Expedition” will be responsible for mountain rescue on Everest, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma. During the time of summit attempts, four to six rescuers are to stay permanently in the Advanced Base Camps. For each expedition, the Chinese-Tibetan authorities will collect a deposit of 5,000 US dollars, which will only be refunded if there have been no accidents within the group and if all environmental protection requirements have been met.

North side of Everest

Will the mountaineers on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest be chauffeured to the base camp next spring with electric buggies, as we know them from golf courses? This Tibetan provincial government’s plan is reported by Chinese state media. Step by step, all vehicles without electric motors should be banned from the base camp in order to reduce air pollution, it said. “In peak season, the camp welcomes an average of 200 to 400 vehicles every day,” said Tang Wu, director of Tibet’s Tourism Development Commission. “The camp receives an average of 20,000 vehicles every year.”

More than 100,000 visitors per year

The Chinese Base Camp, which can be reached on a paved road, has increasingly developed into a tourist attraction.  According to the state news agency Xinhua, in 2017 more than 100,000 people visited the starting point for Everest expeditions on the north side of the mountain. It is obvious that so many people produce a lot of garbage. The provincial government has commissioned a company to keep the area between the Chinese Base Camp at 5,200 meters and the Advance Base Camp at 6500 meters clean.

Special bonus for the transport of faeces

Garbage cans in Everest Base Camp

After the last spring season, 8.5 metric tonnes of waste were collected according to official data. It was said that it was particularly difficult to remove the faeces: The locals did not want to pack the human waste on their yaks because they thought it would bring bad luck. Only after special payments did some people agree to take the faeces away.

No more news about the planned mountaineering centre

Whether the plan with the electric cars will really be implemented remains to be seen. Almost two years ago, the news had gone around the world that by 2019 an Everest mountaineering centre, the size of twelve football pitches, was to be built in Gangkar, also known as Old Tingri, with accommodation and restaurants for mountaineers, a helicopter rescue base, offices for expedition operators, repair shops for cars, motorcycles and bicycles as well as a mountaineering museum.  After that you didn’t hear anything more about it.

Rescue flights also on the north side of Everest?

Rescue helicopters from Nepal at the foot of Shishapangma

However, there are persistent rumors that from 2019 there will also be helicopter rescue flights on the Tibetan north side of Everest. Last spring, Chinese rescue forces and Nepalese helicopter pilots worked together to find Bulgarian climber Boyan Petrov, who has been missing on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet. Unfortunately, the search was unsuccessful in the end, but the rescue operation could serve as a model for the highest of all mountains.

Garbage in Everest high camp

“Damn it! What a mess,” I cursed this morning as I rode my bike to work after the sunny weekend. “Are these peoples’ brains turned off?” The path was paved with plastic cups, fast food packaging, barbecue trays and shards of broken beer bottles. It looked similar, albeit with other, sometimes even less appetizing ingredients, after this spring season in the high camps on Mount Everest. Even bags with faeces were lying around. The Mexican climber David Liano Gonzalez documented this mess with pictures. “I’ve been a part of ‚Eco Everest Expeditions‘ for ten years. We have brought down more than ten tons of trash. I carry down my own poop on special bags,” the 38-year-old, who scaled the highest mountain on earth for the seventh time this year, writes to me. “I try to leave the mountain cleaner than I found it. But with so many people, no oversight and no mountain ethics, the problem is out of control.”

No respect

David Liano on top of Everest this spring

Most summit aspirants don’t even care about Everest, says David: “They only climb Everest to get a photo at the summit and post it on social media. That’s it. No respect. For them it’s irrelevant if the mountain is a garbage dump or if they litter it while they are there.” The Mexican is stunned that even Sherpas pollute the high camps: “This is a sacred mountain for the Sherpa and they litter it as much or more than foreigners. It’s shocking. Disappointing.”

Better pay for carrying down lightweight waste

A change of mind among climbers is urgently needed, says Liano. “This takes a generation. But change of mind definitely needs to be started.” The goal is to stop the pollution in the Everest high camps and remove the garbage that is already there, says David, adding, that it is a good start to pay the Sherpas per kilogram of garbage they bring down: “However, people tend to carry down mostly heavy stuff, but all the ripped tents and tarps will stay up there forever because they don’t weigh too much. No incentive. So pay much more per kilogram if the trash brought down is only cloth!”

Lifetime ban

The Mexican climber is also demanding tough punishments on the polluters among the Sherpas and foreign members of the commercial groups. Lifelong bans for participation in expeditions are conceivable, suggests Liano. Operators could lose their license. “Encourage people to take photos of litterers! We should also get NGOs involved in supervising that current regulations are followed and enforced.”

Issue fewer permits

Finally, David thinks that it is crucial to limit the number of Everest summit aspirants in order to cope with the waste problem in the high camps. “I’ve always believed that mountains should be available to all. Now I’ve changed my mind for Everest,” says Liano. “The number of climbers needs to be controlled. If this is a problem for Nepal because income is being cut, then double the permit fees if necessary!”

North side of Mount Everest

Stricter waste rules apply immediately on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. “With the number of climbers is increasing rapidly, more and more waste is produced by climbers in mountaineering activities,” says a statement from the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) to the expedition organizers I have received. “Protecting the ecological environment it’s our duty and obligation, also benefit our next generations.” In May 2017, workers and volunteers had collected on behalf of the Tibetan authorities four tons of garbage at altitudes between 5,200 and 6,500 meters on Everest.

Eight kilograms of garbage per climber

Garbage collection on the Everest south side

Starting from this year, each expedition group has to pay a garbage deposit fee of US $ 5,000. The expeditions are obliged to bring back eight kilograms of waste per climber from the high camps back to the base camp. For every kilo less $ 20 will be charged, for every kilo more ten dollars credited. At the end of the expedition, this will be offset against the previously deposited amount. From now on it is also only allowed to leave prayer flags on the summit when old flags of the same length are brought down. This should be supervised by the liaison officer in the base camp, it said.

Permits only to renowned operators?

The CTMA had announced to revise the mountaineering rules for expeditions. It was expected that also the rules for commercial operators in terms of safety and climbing style would be tightened. This reform is still pending, discussions within the CTMA are still ongoing. Well-informed sources say that the Tibetan-Chinese authorities are considering, among other things, reducing the number of expeditions in Tibet in the coming years and issuing permits only to experienced and renowned operators.

Collecting garbage on Everest

Such big garbage bags have guaranteed not yet been brought down from Mount Everest. The Expedition Operator’s Association Nepal (EOA) has delivered canvas bags, capable of holding 80 kilograms, to Everest Base Camp. They are to be used in particular for transporting old tents and garbage, which have accumulated in Camp 2 at 6,400 meters due to the premature end of the climbing seasons in 2014 and 2015, down to the valley. 80-kg bags are, of course, too heavy to be shouldered by porters and carried through the Khumbu Icefall to Everest Base Camp.

Two dollars per kilo

For this purpose, the helicopters are to be used that are currently transporting equipment of the expedition teams for the upcoming spring season to Camp 2. On the return flight to Base Camp they are empty and therefore can take back the full garbage bags. The New Zealander Russell Brice, head of the expedition operator Himalayan Experience, said, he was paying his Sherpas two dollars per kilo of trash they bring on their way back from Camp 3 (7,300 meters) or Camp 4 (7,950 meters) down to Camp 2. The “Eco Everest Expedition” run by the operator Asian Trekking has once again committed itself to bring down “old garbage, in addition to our own”.

Comparatively low deposit

South side of Mount Everest

For many years, the mountaineers have been obliged to dig or burn their organic waste. Recyclable material such as plastic or glass must be returned to Kathmandu as well as empty oxygen bottles or batteries. Any expedition team that breaches the rules risks not getting back their garbage deposit of US $ 4000. It remains to be seen whether this small sum – compared to the overall turnover on Everest – can really deter polluters.

Glacier melt reveals old garbage

Of course, there is also old garbage on the mountain, from times when environmental protection was still a foreign word. In addition, the increasing glacier melt on Everest as a result of climate change reveals tents or oxygen bottles from the 1990s or even earlier which the mountaineers had once thoughtlessly disposed in crevasses.

Mount Everest

The Everest spring season is gaining momentum. The Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest is filling. According to the government in Kathmandu, 279 climbers from 38 countries have registered for the highest mountain on earth. The Icefall Doctors have meanwhile prepared the route all the way up to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. The teams who want to climb Everest from the Tibetan north side, have also received now their permits from the Chinese authorities and are heading to Tibet. It’s going to kick off there too. Before the media Everest season begins, I would like to correct some reoccurring errors.

1) Everest is a safe mountain.

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

Granted, the technical climbing difficulties on the two normal routes may be limited because the way via the Southeast Ridge as well as the route via the Northeast Ridge are secured with fixed ropes up to the summit. But that alone doesn’t make Everest a safe mountain. Finally, it is 8,850 meters high, where oxygen is pressed into the lungs with only one-third of the pressure compared to sea level. Also an ascent with breathing mask is not chicken feed. Even if it is really true that Everest in case of using bottled oxygen is downgraded to a six-thousander, you have to manage to get to the top. In addition, climate change has increased the objective dangers. Parts of the route that were previously almost always snowy, are now frequently free from snow and ice. Rockfall is threatening in the Lhotse flank. And the danger of avalanches has increased, not only in the Khumbu Icefall.

2) Everest is a killer mountain.

The opposite to 1) is wrong as well. Although there were no summit successes from the south side in the last two years, but two avalanche incidents with a total of 35 dead, Mount Everest is still far from being one the most dangerous eight-thousanders. On the one hand about 280 people have died so far on the highest mountain on earth, but there have been more than 7,000 ascents on the other hand. This ratio makes Everest belong even more to the category of the secure than of the extremely dangerous eight-thousanders. Most deaths per ascents have been recorded on Annapurna, on the second place of this “fatality ranking” follows K 2.

3) Everest is no longer a mountain for top climbers.

Everest North Face

20 routes have been climbed on Everest, plus several variations of these ways. This does not mean that there is a lack of other options. So far only two routes have been climbed in the Kangchung Face, in recent years the Everest East Face was almost always deserted. Furthermore there should still be possible new ascent routes via the North and the Southwest Face. Not to mention the ultimate challenge, the “Horseshoe Route”: up Nuptse West Ridge, traversing the summits of Lhotse and Everest and descending via Everest West Ridge to the starting point.

4) Everest is a garbage dump.

Garbage at the South Col

There have been garbage regulations for Everest expeditions for decades. The mountaineers are obliged to dig or burn their organic waste. Recyclable material such as plastic or glass must be returned to Kathmandu as well as empty oxygen bottles or batteries. Anyone who breaches the rules risks not getting back his garbage deposit of US $ 4,000. In addition, several eco-expeditions have collected tons of garbage from Everest, from the period when mountaineers made little thoughts about environmental protection. Many mountains in the European Alps are even more garbage dumps than Mount Everest.

5) Everest is littered with corpses.

It is true that Everest summit aspirants should mentally be prepared to pass some bodies of dead climbers. But it is not that the route is “paved with corpses”, as reports suggest repeatedly. Many of the climbers who died of exhaustion were “buried” in crevasses or their corpses were pushed down the Everest walls by other climbers. Sometimes a storm does this job too.

6) The moral of Everest Sherpas has been lost.

Much traffic on Everest

It’s like anywhere: If many people are on the way, you will find some black sheep. In spring 2013, Sherpas attacked Simone Moro, Ueli Steck and Jonathan Griffith in Everest high camp and a year later there were threats of violence against climbers who disagreed with the premature end of the season after the deadly avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall. But it is dishonest to conclude that now all Sherpas tend to violence or no longer do their job properly. More and more Sherpas acquire international certificates as mountain guides. The Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is offering regularly training courses for local climbers. Undoubtedly, the young, well-trained Sherpa climbers act more self-confident. They are aware of their skills and want to be treated as fully-fledged climbers – and not as lackeys.

7) Everest should be closed.

Who would benefit? Perhaps the advocates of a mainly Western climbing philosophy, but certainly not the people of Khumbu, who strongly depend on the income of Everest tourism: local mountain guides, Climbing Sherpas, cooks and kitchen helpers in Base Camp, porters, owners of lodges and shops on the way to Everest, farmers and the families of these all. The Western critics should ask themselves whether mountains like Mont Blanc in the Alps or Denali in Alaska should have to be closed with the same arguments they use only for Everest.

8) The government will do the job.

If there is anything to be learnt from what happened on Everest in the past years, it is this: The government of Nepal is talking more than acting. Again and again politicians of the competent Ministry of Tourism present proposals for new Everest rules, but only to make headlines. As good as nothing is implemented. Even for a simple decision as to extend the permits after the disasters of the last two years, the authorities in Kathmandu needed almost a year each. Virtually all reforms fail, likely because the government itself makes big profit on Everest. It remains in the dark, where exactly the money from the sale of the permits goes – $ 11,000 per climber at all.

9) The climbers are capable of “managing” Everest on their own.

Everest Base Camp

Also at that point, the main counterargument is the business that is made on and with Everest. At the end of the day, every entrepreneur wants to be in the black. The more clients reach the summit, the better is his reputation, and therefore he will likely increase his profit in the following year. As a result one or the other expedition leader will show selfishness on the mountain, according to the motto: Why should I take care of the other groups? What is really needed is to “manage” the mountain to prevent that all ascend on the same day therefore causing traffic jams at the key points of the route. It might work, but also among the expedition leaders, there are black sheep.

10) One should not report about Everest.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Therefore, there will always be mountaineers who want to climb it. And most probably people will always be interested in Everest. That’s the main reason why we have to report about what is happening there – without glossing over, but also without demonizing. Just like anywhere else in the world, it applies on Everest too: You will not solve a problem by keeping quiet about it.

Garbage at the South Col

When, finally, will a piggy bank be placed in the editorial offices, into which everyone has to pay five Euros, who calls Mount Everest the “highest garbage dump in the world”? The money could then be donated to environmental projects in Nepal. These days, the phrase again was often used in the German press. And hardly anyone made the effort to look at this more closely. What has happened? There is a new rule to remove garbage from Everest, no more and no less.

Weighed portions for descending climbers?

Oxygen bottles and waste, collected on Everest

Madhu Sudan Burlakoti of the Nepalese tourism ministry announced that from April onwards every climber ascending beyond Everest basecamp had to bring back eight kilos of garbage. He should then leave it at the government office at base camp. Those who were not sticking to the rules, would be punished, said Burlakoti without going into details.

The outpost of the government in the tent city at 5300 meters will be firstly established in this spring season. Actually it was thought as arbitration board to prevent clashes between Sherpas and climbers like in 2013. Now the office is to be a waste collection place too. Right now I do not see how the rule can be implemented in practice. Should climbers after their successful or failed summit attempts swarm out at the South Col and look for garbage to fill up their eight-kilo-contingent if they do not yet have produced enough waste? Or will there be special Sherpas, who collect the garbage, bring it to certain points and distribute it in weighed portions to descending climbers?

Old stuff

Most reports fail to mention that there have been garbage regulations for Everest expeditions for decades. The mountaineers are obliged to dig or burn their organic waste. Recyclable material such as plastic or glass must be returned to Kathmandu as well as empty oxygen bottles or batteries. Anyone who breaches the rules risks not getting back his garbage deposit of US $ 4000. The Nepalese government also wants to ensure that old rubbish is removed from Mount Everest. A part of this garbage is already lying there for decades and dates back to the time when there were hardly climbers on the highest mountain in the world so that hardly anyone thought about environmental protection.

Climate change brings it to light

Dawa Steven (r.)

Since 2008, Dawa Steven Sherpa has rendered outstanding services to tackling this garbage problem by organizing his “Eco Everest Expeditions”. Year after year he is not only bringing clients to the summit but also thousands of kilos garbage back to Kathmandu. “There is no way to say how much garbage is still left on the Everest”, says Dawa Steven. “It is impossible to say what is under the ice.” In recent years, climate change has also left its traces on the highest of all mountains. Glaciers are melting and revealing garbage – and also the bodies of climbers who died on Everest many years ago. So there is enough to be collected.