To be enraged by a photograph of a Sherpa picking up litter from Mount Everest

[MyGastIsFlabbered]

I know there are bigger problems to get angry about but I've seen this today and it's infuriated me.

Going up Mount Everest is a privilege available to very few people and they can't respect it enough to take their litter with them. Bloody people

@RubberTreePlant yes I'm aware the mountain is littered with dead bodies that people can't just take with them. But it doesn't detract from the fact that there's all kinds of crap on there and I think the mountaineers should be ashamed of themselves. I'm just as appalled by the amount of litter I see every day, I think as a species we're despicable.

@CaptainButtock I seem to remember about 10% of all people who have summited are women.

I have a rich friend who went on endlessly about having climbed Kilimanjiro. Would not stop bragging about it.

It was only on the fourth or fifth retelling of the epic tale that she mentioned the eight sherpas per little rich guy that helped them up the mountain.

I mean, what's the bloody point? You didn't conquer anything. They were practically carried up the mountain for a fee. I just could not take any pride in something like that, or give any kudos.

It's part of the climbing culture isn't it?

@thecats

I know someone very similar. The person I knew wouldn't even walk half a mile. When she did it she paid for her bag to be carried to quit and be carried down the mountain. Believe it or not she was shocked that I didn't sponsor her. She was trying to raise £3000 for charity with £2000 going towards her trip.

This is terrible, something should be done
But what?

its been going on for years sadly.
makes many people in the hiking/ wildcamping uk fraternity very cross as we are huge on leave no trace. we see and bag up found rubbish in the uk! many of us refuse to even have a fire as it will leave a scar on the earth!!

i think its all bragging/ bucket list.......

i personally think they should shut the mountain for a year or 2. clear it properly and let it recover (a tiny bit).

problem is locally everest tourism is huge and is relied upon. so the sherpa`s etc need the quivelent money in payment to do this. then theres hotels etc......its massive! even goes back to the suppliers of equipment/ clothes.....goes on and on.

Pugpigprick

My friend said that one of her friend on the trip would let the sherpas put up his tent, then sit on there with his iPad all evening whilst dinner was being made.

Apparently this conferred her with some sort of moral superiority for sittign outside the tent taking photos.

That's horrifying.

I can't abide all this showman expedition shit in the name of charity. Most of the money ends up as costs for them doing it in the first place!

cats

I’ve “climbed” Kilimanjaro (no actual climbing involved - I don’t care who carries your bag though, summit night is horrendously exhausting and difficult). I didn’t think I had conquered anything and I don’t think anything of it other than that it was a challenge I really enjoyed. 8 per person seems excessive but the local people who work on the mountains are reliant on the work. The last thing they said to us was come again and tell your friends to come too, we can feed our families because people love our mountain (verbatim).

I did it to raise money in memory of a friend but I paid for the entirety of the trip myself and every penny I was sponsored went to charity. Your friend is a CF pug using charity to get a free holiday.

I’m shocked at the picture of gorak shep. I went there en route to base camp. I always disposed of my (limited) litter as directed but I guess I didn’t really think about where it went.

Sadly humans are bad for the planet, travel is especially bad for the planet. Not just mountaineering, all travel.So environmentally I agree OP but in terms of the poor Sherpa comments, I don’t think the Sherpas want people to stop coming. They make a living out of it and being an Everest Sherpa carries quite some kudos, so I understand.

I was horrified by that recent picture of the queue to reach the summit. WTF???? How do people descend safely with all those others around hindering their safe passage down?

It's so disrespectful to that man. The mountaineers should sort out their own bloody rubbish. If they can't take it down during their climb then they can go back up and get it like he's had to.

I live very near to the lake District it's become and awful place.

The litter on the mountains. And routes up is ridiculous, the paths and hedges are full of rubbish. Beaches and other areas which used to be hidden gems as only locals knew where to find them are now covered in rubbish......... thanks to the internet and Facebook groups everything is accessible these days. Entire campsites left behind, barbecues etc piles of clothing, rubbish. And a total lack of respect for the farming industry around them yet they'll cry and rage if an angry farmer confronts them when their dogs running amok have caused lambs to miscarry and left others injured.

Some of this will be locals but a lot are tourists who think they can do what the hell they want.........the irony is the lake District usually attracts a certain type of tourist.......veering more towards the middle class. I bet these same people would harshly judge a drunken oik swigging from cans in their town centre yet feel they can come to our national park and trash the bloody place. They're all scum.

NotMyPuppy

All absolutely fine.

Now please tell my friend to shut the hell up as if she single handedly invented climbing, discovered the mountain and summited!

I would actually be happy to do something like that myself, and have done all sorts of experiences which a) support the locals as you say and b) are great fun/personally worthwhile and c) can raise money.

Just not rich kids passing off their bought experiences as great achievements

It's being going on for a long time but is getting worse due to the sheer number of people who pay to get to summit Everest. Why would anyone want to queue up for their turn on the summit.

We went trekking in Nepal 25 years ago and it was drummed into us that every single bit of our rubbish had to be carried out. I just don't understand how we've got to a stage where anyone would feel that littering the Himalaya is acceptable.

How do people descend safely with all those others around hindering their safe passage down?

A lot of the time they don’t. The delays can be fatal.

The problem with Everest is that it’s the highest mountain on earth so everyone wants to climb it, but also technically not the most difficult by a long stretch so people with little or no climbing experience are able to give it a whirl as long as they can pay. It’s absolutely saturated and something has got to give.

cats

Please pass on that I told her to STFU

Yanbu to be disgusted with the rubbish and destruction, although YABU to be disgusted by the Sherpa picking it up. It's not like he has been photographed sadly cleaning up his backyard, he has been employed to do a job and this is part of it. I don't see a problem with that.

If you are concerned about sherpas being exploited, surely a bigger issue is their safety while climbing. By comparison, picking up litter at base camp is a very safe and (for them) easy task.

The "good" news is that thanks to climate change, parts of Everest such as the khumba ice fall are becoming increasingly avalanche prone and they will soon be impossible to pass. Which will mean far fewer teams climbing.

*RubberTreePlant

"Take litter with them"?

There are dozens of dead bodies littering that mountain. I don't think you understand the terrain/industry/sport/business.

Personally,I think it would be better if all climbing stopped, but it won't.*

I completely agree with this- no offence but the idea of people taking their rubbish with them is ridiculous (how?) but the ability to climb should be far more restricted

Unfortunately, it’s easy and colonialist for us to say, we’re not the ones who make a huge amount of money in an incredibly poor country from the mountains. You can’t blame people for their willingness to be part of it- Sherpas earn an incredible amount by local standards.

I agree with OP's anger towards all that hideous litter on Everest and beyond. It feels even more disgusting that it is left in such an incredibly beautiful environment.

BUT... the problem with Everest is that at that altitude, oxygen levels are very very low, and even taking a single step is exhausting. Altitude sickness is debilitating and can kill quickly. Everest might be an "easy" climb - FWIW, my mum's partner did a lot mountain climbing in the 50s and 60s, before the advent of all these glory hunters looking for FB likes and ladders roped across tricky crevasses and he said that it was "easy compared to K2" - but it's not actually easy to simply survive. So I can find it more excusable to leave surplus stuff up there, distasteful as it is, than I can when some asshat drops their litter on the high street not five feckin feet away from a litter bin. That really winds me up, as there's no excuse for that, none.

Personally I would like to see access to the Himalayas closed to allow for a big clean-up, but it won't happen; they wouldn't or couldn't do without the revenue.

YANBU OP

Where did I say I was disgusted by the Sherpa? I understand that Everest tourism contributes to the local economy and I don't know what the answer is.

@Suiker wow! What an amazing article

I think the poster meant you were disgusted by the fact the Sherpa had to clean up the litter OP, which is how it read really?