Himalayan clean-up campaign inspires exhibition about environmental damage

About 35,000kg of waste collected relays powerful message on urgent need to encourage sustainable practices among adventurers

Decades of commercial hiking have turned Mount Everest into the world's highest dumping ground. AFP

Rusty cooking gas cylinders weighing more than 30kg, flattened pressure cookers, discoloured oxygen cylinders, broken helmets, ice climbing boots, electronic waste, watches – these are only part of 35,000kg of waste collected from four of the world’s highest peaks, including Everest, Lhotse, Annapurna and Baruntse.

The items were retrieved during a two-month-long Mountain Clean-up Campaign, an annual expedition undertaken by the Nepal Army since 2019. This year, a team of 97 expeditioners – which included sherpas, high-altitude porters, medical officers, rescue operators and Nepal Army personnel – participated in the campaign, which lasted from March 28 until June 5.

It was literally a Himalayan task, one where the climbers – divided into four teams – faced blizzards and avalanches even as temperatures plummeted to -40ºC. Two young sherpas even lost their lives during the expedition.

“The campaign was fraught with multiple challenges,” says Lakpa Tenji Sherpa, 29, part of the team that scaled the Annapurna mountain. “I attempted four climbs, one to fix the ropes for the summiteers, and three more to collect about 200kg of waste, which was physically hauled down in bags. There were plenty of scary moments.”

At 8,091 meters, Annapurna is also known as the “world’s deadliest mountain”, due to the number of climbers who die trying to scale it. For every three successful summits, one climber dies. Some lose their hands to frostbite, others freeze to death and several plunge to their deaths in a crevasse.

Some of the items collected as waste from the mountains were part of an evocative exhibition at the Nepal Army Headquarters in Kathmandu earlier this summer. As well as highlighting the extraordinary courage of the summiteers, the displays reinforced the menace of pollution and waste accumulation at some of the world’s most pristine mountains. Through their tangibility, the objects relayed a powerful message about the urgent need to preserve the environment and encourage sustainable practices among communities.

“When you see documentaries or read about pollution on these mountains, the magnitude of the problem doesn’t really sink in. However, when you see these objects brought down by the brave climbers, its impact is immediate and strong,” a local visitor says.

In some ways, the exhibition was also reminiscent of "Art brut", a French term that translates to raw art. Invented by French artist Jean Dubuffet, the concept revolves around 'naive art – which is outside the traditional confines of mainstream art, untrammeled by convention.

According to Dubuffet, such art serves as a particular genre of creativity, “exposing hidden dialogue and demonstration of arts in a naive, raw, free and unexplainable and ruleless form”. It’s also something that creates dissonance and discomfort among viewers helping them to recognise their own shortcomings – in this case littering precious mountains and triggering global warming, glacier melting and devastating floods.

Every year, hundreds of climbers scale Everest, leaving behind a trail of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, leading to challenging waste management issues. So acute is the problem that the Everest has been dubbed “the world’s highest garbage dump”. It is estimated that there are about 14,000 tonnes of garbage languishing on Everest alone.

Mountain garbage and debris has wider ecological ramifications as the impact of climate change is felt more strongly at highest altitudes such as the Himalayas, say conservationists. This is alarming, as these mountains are a primary source of water for agriculture, drinking, energy production and biodiversity. The pollution of water at this primal source pollutes the entire subsequent chain.

“The escalating problem of mountain debris and glacier melting has accelerated in recent years which is playing havoc with the global ecosystems,” says Ghana S Gurung, country director for the World Wildlife Fund, Nepal.

“Awareness needs to be built at the highest level, which is what MCC is all about, as billions depend on fresh water from the Himalayas – also known as the Third Pole. And it has to be done sustainably and regularly.”

However, through MCC, the Nepal Army expects to make a significant contribution to preserving the mountains for future generations, while using it as a force multiplier to attract tourists and mountaineers.

The campaign has become a new feature in the field of nature and environment conservation and preservation in the country. Last year, two decomposed human bodies along with 157kg of biodegradable and 33,877kg of non-biodegradable waste was collected from from Mount Everest, Lhotse, Manaslu and Kanchenjunga, a representative for the Nepal Army revealed.

Collected waste is brought to Kathmandu for recycling, where the decomposable waste is managed in collaboration with local authorities as part of the campaign’s efforts to promote sustainable waste management practices.

At the waste-recycling centre, where the collected garbage had been assembled in downtown Kathmandu, enormous bags full of plastic and objects similar to the ones displayed at the exhibition greet visitors once again.

One cannot help but wonder why the climbers – who obviously love the mountains enough to risk their lives to climb them – sully them with so much trash.

Ang Babu Sherpa’s explanation is an eye-opener. “In that death zone and at that vertiginous height, where every second your survival itself is at stake, what’s uppermost in the mountaineers’ minds is a safe descent. Bringing down heavy equipment which they lugged up for daily sustenance isn’t a priority,” he says.

The sherpa added that some of the items brought down were more than 25 years old. “Even so, many dead bodies of climbers still continue to litter the mountaintops; there’s way too much stuff to be brought down,” he adds.

This ominous reality notwithstanding, all one can hope is that at least some of that refuse, as well as the ones displayed at the event, will be recycled into useful or even beautiful objects. Be it modular furniture, wall hangings or decorations, it would be a fitting tribute to the circularity of life.