Keeping Mount Everest Clean...

Making people aware of complicated environmental issues is not so easy. In a base camp full with driven and focused climbers it’s even more difficult. Most climbers concentrate solely on their summit aspirations, and yes, after paying a lot of money to climb Mt. Everest and after a long physical and mental preparation, who can really blame them? So, to make the best of our little awareness project, we made a few large sized banners and A5 sized brochures about keeping a water tower like Mt. Everest clean. As we’re joining a Nepali cleanup expedition, our simple message seems to make sense: keep it clean!

One of these messages prominently hangs next to the main trail to the ice fall, and to be honest, focused climber or not, you just cannot miss it. It’s large, it’s clear, it’s short, and it’s very blue and white. So really, everybody that comes just near it has to read it. We put some brochures next to the trail for people to read more about water problems, too. And yes, we’re very pleased to see that many climbers notice our banner and stop a second to read its message. We’re happy so far. The second banner has been fixed to one of the huge ice towers in the middle of the ice fall. There’s just one trail through the ice fall, so everybody who climbs up to camp 1 and beyond will run into it. Of course there will be people saying: you’re polluting the ice fall… To be honest, in a way they are right! The ice fall is never meant to be used for making advertisements or statements! So, we make sure to take it down again as soon as the majority of the climbers have passed it on their final ascent to the summit. And, we believe that it’s very necessary to remind climbers and organizers of the fact that they have to keep the mountain clean. There’s proof enough that this has not been done in the previous years!!! True or not?

At this moment many climbers are having a rest for their final summit attempt somewhere below base camp. In the next two weeks, all of them will go up, pass our banners and hopefully make it back safely with their personal garbage. Then, our small project is finished and we’ll head down, too. Let’s hope the present cleanup expeditions don’t have to bring a lot of new rubbish down, although we can say that the number of dead bodies on the mountain has risen this month with at least ‘one’. More to come later…