Mountaineers have turned the Himalayas into a “giant dustbin,” according to a conservationist on a mission to clean up the mountain range.
Luc Boisnard, 53, said climbers also threw rubbish into glaciers, where it would ‘resurface in 200 years’, according to The Times.
The alpinist – who was part of an expedition that cleared 3.7 tons of rubbish at Makalu, the world’s fifth highest peak and Annapurna, the tenth highest – founded Himalaya Clearancea community cleanup campaign to raise awareness about the pollution of the Himalayas, following a previous expedition in 2010 to remove a ton of garbage from Everest.
Footage from the expedition shows Boisnard and his team trudging through heaps of rubbish, including plastic bottles, toilet paper and abandoned tents.
‘Behind every stone you will find a lot of oxygen bottles, cans, canvas and shoes. It’s really terrible,” said the Frenchman, adding that 45 percent of the waste was plastic.
Mountaineers have turned the Himalayas into a ‘giant dustbin’ according to a conservationist on a mission to clean up the mountain range
Boisnard had climbed Makalu – 20 kilometers southeast of Mount Everest in the Mahalangur Himalayas – with ten Sherpas, two Nepalese high-altitude specialists and five cooks to collect the waste, but had to give up after contracting a lung infection.
It comes after Nepalese authorities introduced a law in 2014 requiring climbers to leave a ‘garbage dump’ prior to their climbs.
The fee is 528,000 Nepalese rupees (£3238) for Everest and 396,300 (£2428) for other peaks higher than 26,250 feet.
If climbers take down the 8 kg of waste they produce, the money will be refunded.
However, critics have argued that the scheme is ineffective.
A 2022 analysis by Lincoln University found that the Garbage Deposit Scheme (GDS) “has failed to achieve desired waste management objectives, particularly due to low stakeholder adoption and low levels of government support,” according to Tsewang Nuru Sherpa.
Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja, featured in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible – which details his attempt to clean every peak higher than 8,000 meters (26,250 ft) – is also raising awareness of the problem of pollution in the Himalayas.
Nepalese authorities introduced a law in 2014 requiring climbers to leave a ‘garbage dump’ prior to their climbs
The fee is 528,000 Nepalese rupees (£3238) for Everest and 396,300 (£2428) for other peaks higher than 26,250 feet
Purja launched the Big Mountain Clean-up project and he and his team, Nimsdai, removed 500 kg of waste from Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, two years ago.
According to Nimsdai’s website, the project takes “a zero-tolerance approach to the waste generated by the increasingly popular expedition culture, which is now adversely affecting those living in and around the mountains.”
The waste, according to observers, is a by-product of this “expedition culture,” with about 600 people climbing Everest each year, and large numbers climbing other peaks as well.
Last year, a total of 145 mountaineers climbed K2, the second highest mountain in the world, in just one day.
Bachendri Pal – the first Indian woman to climb Everest in 1984 – has opposed what she calls the growing commercial nature of Everest, which she says now attracts wealthy but increasingly incompetent climbers.
“Now anyone who has the money gets to climb like it’s a tourist spot, with 600 people climbing every year. It’s crazy,” she told The Times of India.