Why Everest Is In Worst Condition Then We Thought It Was

Why Everest Is In Worst Condition Then We Thought It Was

Climbing Mount Everest has always been my dream ever since I read about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norway climbing and I was inspired by there bravery and the sheer adventure and made me inspire to live there dream, but ever since the commercialisation of mount Everest as I would like to call it the magic of the mountains are dissipating. 

“Everest is no longer a wilderness experience," says mountaineer Graham Hoyland. "It's a McDonald's experience." Not only did the booming tourism create employment and better service, but a series of environmental issues also started to surface as well. 

"The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement filled in the camps ", climber Mark Jenkins wrote in National Geographic.

Well, I couldn't less agree with these statements and its not just the charm the mountain is loosing. The Mount Everest is now approximately covered with 200 thousand tons of human waste and even thousands of tons of dead bodies. 

As mountaineers explore the sacred mountain and benefit the local economy, they also play a major part in tipping the eco-balance of the Everest region. 

During the high season, the human waste, abandon mountaineering gears (e.g. empty oxygen cylinders, broken tents, battery, etc.) and other trash becomes the hazardous by-product of relentless commercial Everest expedition.

Nepal officials are warning human waste being left by climbers on Mount Everest is causing pollution and could spread disease on the world’s highest peak.

The 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on Everest's slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of faeces and urine, according to Ang Tshering, the chief of Nepal's mountaineering association.


Decades of commercial mountaineering have turned Mount Everest into the world's highest rubbish dump as an increasing number of big-spending climbers pay little attention to the ugly footprint they leave behind.

As the number of climbers on the mountain has soared—at least 600 people have scaled the world's highest peak so far this year alone—the problem has worsened.

For the trash and bodies left on Mt. Everest, it will take a long time to degrade given the freezing temperature. So there will be no imminent environmental disaster. 

Nevertheless, as Mt. Everest works as the major source of freshwater in Asia, if it was contaminated, the outcome would be catastrophic.  

Environmentalists are concerned that the pollution on Everest is also affecting water sources down in the valley.


At the moment the raw sewage from base camp is carried to the next village—a one-hour walk—and dumped into trenches.

At the moment the raw sewage from base camp is carried to the next village—a one-hour walk—and dumped into trenches.

This then "gets flushed downhill during the monsoon into the river", said Garry Porter, a US engineer who together with his team might have the answer.


They are considering installing a biogas plant near Everest base camp that would turn climber poo into useful fertiliser.

Another solution, believes Ang Tsering Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, would be a dedicated rubbish collection team.

The Qomolangma( Everest) National Nature Reserve will also work with mountaineering office to deploy staff and yaks to collect and handle trash in Everest Base Camp and Advance Base Camp. 

Another key to protecting the sacred mountain is to raise the awareness of environmental protection for most mountaineers.

Let's not deteriorate the fame of the most beautiful mountain in the world more than it has.