Severe poop problem

Mount Everest: poop has to go back in bags

Mount Everest is considered the highest garbage dump in the world.

(Bild: AFP)

Nepal wants mountaineers on Mount Everest to carry their excrement back down to base camp and no longer leave it on the mountain. From this year's main season in spring, it will be compulsory for climbers to use poop bags.

The new rule is intended to combat the pollution of the landscape, confirmed Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, a high-ranking representative of the responsible municipality Pasang Lhamu, on Friday.

There are also repeated fears that mountaineers could indirectly ingest human excrement when they heat snow to obtain drinking water. To enforce the new rule, the municipality wants to open a temporary office at the base camp.

Excrement problem now big
There are toilets at the base camp itself, said Khimlal Gautam, an official who has climbed Everest himself. But higher up on the mountain, climbers have to defecate outside - and the excrement problem is now huge.

The waste problem is not new: here is an archive photo from 1993

(Bild: AFP)

In addition to excrement, there are also tons of other garbage on Everest - such as broken tents and clothing, food packaging, stoves, empty water bottles, beer cans and oxygen bottles. The 8,849-metre-high mountain has become sadly famous for being the world's highest garbage dump.

Problem is not new
The Himalayas, with several of the highest mountains in the world, have been trying to combat the problem for some time. Cleaning crews are repeatedly sent up there and garbage bins are placed on the hiking trails in the region. Some expedition companies have been using poop bags voluntarily for some time.