Climbers Clean Up Everest

Filed in archive Outdoor News on May 28, 2007

If you read this blog regularly, you know there's been a lot of activity on Mount Everest. But, a group of climbers from Nepal and Japan did something that could environmentally save the mountain.

In an effort to raise public awareness, Ken Noguchi and climbers from Nepal and Japan picked up over 1,000 pounds of trash left by mountaineers. It is believed the trash accumulated over many decades. Wow!

Hundreds of climbers carrying tons of supplies try and climb the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest every year, adding to the piles of trash on its slopes.

Japan's Ken Noguchi, who led the latest in a series of cleaning campaigns on the Everest, said most of the garbage his team collected on the northern side of Mount Everest in the past month had been handed over to authorities in Tibet.

"We have brought some of the garbage with us which will be displayed in Tokyo and Seoul to raise public awareness to keep the mountain clean," Noguchi told Reuters after returning from the mountain.

Japanese and Koreans are among frequent climbers of Mount Everest.

Noguchi had led several cleaning campaigns to the mountain in the past and has so far collected 8.8 metric tons of rubbish from the Nepali as well as the Tibetan side of Mount Everest.

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