8 tons of trash cleared off Mt. Everest; 50 more remain at top

In a record-making expedition that was a first of its kind, a team of 29 Nepali mountaineers have brought down 8,110 kilograms of trash from Mt. Everest, local media reported.

The garbage collected from the mountain slopes with the help of 75 yaks and 65 porters include oxygen cylinders, tents, climbing equipment and helicopter parts, Pasang Sherpa, the team leader, told media on Wednesday.

“Nineteen of us worked above the Everest Base Camp for seven hours or more to bring down waste every day. Each one of us carried down a minimum of 30 kilograms of waste,” he said.

Cleaning-up Mt. Everest began in 2008 and about 50 tons of waste, including dead bodies of climbers, remain on the mountain, according to experts.

Sir Edmund Hillary scaled Mount Everest in 1953 along with Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, becoming the first mountaineer to climb the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 meters.

Since then, deaths of about 250 climbers have been reported on the mountain.

The Nepali cleaning group said that it was impossible for them to bring down the dead bodies as most of the bodies are frozen and heavy to carry, while others lie in various states of decay.

An estimated 120 tons of trash is left behind each year by the Everest climbers. Earlier, expedition teams from China have led cleaning-up efforts too.