Good news from Everest: Clean Everest Expedition brought down 1300kg

[Wonk]

of garbage from as high up as camp four, 8300m above sea level.

http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=7923

03:03 pm EST May 29, 2006
(Press release KATHMANDU, May 28, 2006) South Korean mountaineer Han, Wang Yong and his international Clean Everest (Lhotse) Expedition 2006 team is back to Kathmandu, concluding a month long cleaning campaign.

The team of eight foreign mountaineers and nine Nepali climbing Sherpas conducted the cleaning campaign on the Everest Base Camp up to South Col (fourth camp) in Nepal side, between April 30 and May 23. The team collected more than 1300kg of garbage from the southern slopes of the Himalayas.

...And they had to pay for it, too

(snip)

The Clean Everest (Lhotse) Expedition 2006 is a part of Han's ambitious and noble mission to clean all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, which he launched in November 2003, after scaling all those peaks. Han, the 11th 14- 8000m peaks summiteer has already led cleaning campaigns to six mountains including K2, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri and Annapurna.

more
http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=7923

Here's an earlier article, with more details about their Clean K2 Expedition.
http://www.everestnews.com/everest2006/haneverest05082006.htm

This is the first I've heard of large organized climbing expeditions where the goal wasn't to summit, just to get close, and bring back down as much trash as they can safely carry. Good for them, what a noble thing to do. I think this deserves as much international media attention as the recent David Sharp and Lincoln Hall incidents got, but somehow I doubt it'll get it.

[pansypoo53219]

1. now THAT 'because it was there'

is something i can applaude.

[entanglement]

2. Good to hear that

[Metta]

3. Now more of their magic shines through. Like the river in Spirited Away.

nt.

[Wonk]

4. kick

[TorchTheWitch]

5. Been doing that for years

In 1995 Rob Hall and Scott Fischer teamed up to do a clean up expedition. They got loads of crap off the mountain. The next year they both died high up on the mountain during a summit bid.

It's become an unbelievable garbage dump high up. I'm not sure when the clean up expeditions started, but they've been doing it for many years now.

It would be nice if something could be done about all the bodies. I've seen some photos of some and they're just completely grotesque. At least if they could cover them up somehow. Maybe put some prayer flags or some other memento with them.

[SmokingJacket]

6. Did they bring down any corpses?

Must be plenty of them up there.

I can't believe people would LITTER all over Everest!!!!

And you're right -- cleaning up the mountain is much more deserving of attention: they risked their well-being not to benefit their self-esteem, but to do good. :thumbsup: