Everest climbers will now have to take their excrement with them

People climbing Everest will now have to clean up their faeces and take them with them to base camp for disposal, reports with the BBC.

Photo: iStock.com/LordHenriVoton

“Our mountains have started to stink,” said Mingma Sherpa, chairman of Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality.

The municipality, which covers much of the Everest region, introduced the new rule as part of wider measures currently being implemented. Due to extreme temperatures, excrement left on Everest does not decompose completely.

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“We receive complaints that human feces are visible on the rocks and some climbers are getting sick. This is unacceptable and undermines our image,” Mingma explained.

Climbers attempting to summit Everest - the world's highest peak - and nearby Mount Lhotse will need to buy special poo bags at base camp, which will be "checked on return".

Where to go to the toilet on the mountain

During the climbing season, climbers spend most of their time at the base camp, acclimatizing to the altitude. There, separate tents are placed as toilets, and under them there are barrels for collecting excrement.

But once they begin their dangerous journey, things become more complicated.

Most climbers and support staff dig holes in the snow, but the higher you go on the mountain, the less snow there is in some places. Very few people collect their faeces in biodegradable bags during the climb to the summit of Everest, which can take several weeks.

Litter is a huge problem on Everest and other mountains in the region, although there are a growing number of cleanup campaigns, including an annual one led by the Nepalese army.

Open toilet

“Waste remains a major problem, especially in higher camps where we cannot reach,” said Chiring Sherpa, director general of the non-governmental organization Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC).

Although there are no official figures, his organization estimates that between the first camp at the base of Everest and the fourth, which is closer to the summit, about three tons of human excrement accumulated.

“It is believed that half of this number is located in South Col, known as Camp Four,” Chiring said.

Stefan Keck, an international mountain guide who organizes Everest expeditions, noted that South Col has earned a reputation as an "open toilet."

South Col, with an altitude of 7906 meters, serves as a base for climbers before the final stage of conquering the peaks of Everest and Lhotse, where the terrain is very windy.

“There is almost no ice or snow here, so you can see human feces everywhere,” Keck said.

With permission from the Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, the SPCC is currently purchasing about 8000 special bags from the US for about 400 foreign climbers and 800 support staff for the upcoming climbing season, which begins in March.

These poop bags contain chemicals and special powders that harden human excrement and make it virtually odorless.

It is believed that on average one climber produces 250 grams of excrement per day. Typically, summiteers spend about two weeks in the upper camps before the ascent.

“Based on this, we plan to give them two bags, each of which they can use five to six times,” Chiring said.

“This is definitely a positive development and we are happy to contribute to its success,” said Dambar Parajuli, President of the Nepal Expedition Operators Association.

He said his organization had proposed doing it first as a pilot project on Everest and then repeating it on other mountains.

Mingma Sherpa, the first Nepalese to climb all 14 mountains above 8000 meters, assured that the use of such bags to collect human waste has been tried and tested on other mountains.

“Climbers have used these bags on Mount Denali (North America's highest peak) and in Antarctica, so we advocate for this,” said Mingma, who is an adviser to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

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Keck agreed with these thoughts and stated that this idea would help clean up the mountain.

In the past, the central government of Nepal has announced several rules for mountaineering, but many of them are not followed properly.

One of the main reasons is the lack of liaison officers on the ground. It is expected that government officials will be with the expedition teams at the base camps.

“Officials were always absent from the base camps, which led to all sorts of irregularities, including people climbing our mountains without permission,” Mingma concluded. - Now everything will change. We will set up a contact office and ensure that our new measures, including the use of poo bags, are implemented.”

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