It was six decades ago when the first quest to scale the highest mountain of the world was successfully completed, and since then, tons of human waste that has been abandoned by hundreds of Mount Everest climbers is now starting to raise a litter issue.
The annual climbing season that begins in March and runs all the way through May includes around 300 mountaineers who battle the different elements of the world's highest peak. But since there are no toilets, the climbers have to take care of their business by either squatting in the open or hunkering down behind the rocks.
According to the Huffington Post, Nepal has now taken a much stricter route of enforcing penalties on climbers who fail to bring back 8 kg of trash and human waste.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, the Chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said that the human excrement is a bigger issue than the oxygen bottles, torn tents and can or wrappers left behind the climbers. It is because the human excrement remains frozen under the snow.
Sherpa said "Discarded in ice pits, the human waste remains under the snow. When washed down by glaciers (when the snow melts), it [the human excrements] comes out in the open."
Since the human excrement remains in the snow until it melts, there has been an upward trend in the health hazard to people who are dependent on the river water that comes through Mt. Everest.
Recent climbers say that the surface of the mountain is much cleaner than before, thanks to the NMA's monitoring efforts. The Eco-Everest cleanup expeditions have been scaling the mountain each year since 2008 and have successfully retrieved 15,000 kg (33,070 lbs) of trash.
Around 4,000 climbers have been successfully able to scale Mount Everest so far. The snow has covered the bodies of at least 260 people who died trying.
