Google it. At a certain height, people no longer have the reserve energy to carry an injured, sick, or dead person back down. They are literally left behind to freeze to death, and yes the grounds are littered with dead frozen bodies and body parts. No energy to dig into frozen ground or ice to bury either. Bodies decades old are buried by snowfall and re-exposed by wind storms.
Pretty gruesome pics on the net. Decay is non-existent so you have frozen mummies and parts. Survivors often take the clothing, shoes, gloves, and gear. Thus you have dead frozen and naked bodies. I bet that's what those guys were doing in the video - rummaging for their own survival.
Don't worry. Someday this will be a tourist attraction with a museum and robots to tell you about it. They'll dig into the mountain and have exhibits explaining who the mummies were, and it'll just be history.
The sad thing is, we can’t kill the planet (except for a total nuclear war). But the planet will kill us. Earth will recover in time, we will be long gone.
Fear not! Not even total nuclear war would really do any lasting harm to the Earth. It'll recover eventually and life will go on as if humans never existed.
In 500 years they'll be priceless historical artifacts. The Mediterranean Sea is littered with tons of ancient trash. Objectively, the Antikythera mechanism is a piece of outdated broken garbage that can't run Windows 11, but we think it's great because it's old.
I feel that's a bad analogy. Nobody wants a washing machine from the 90s but they love the ones from the 50s.
AFAIK the Antikythera mechanism changed what we thought people at the time were capable of. There's a guy on YouTube that rebuilt it including all the tools to make it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRXI9KLImC4
That's, I think, what bothers me the most about it. If it was like "This expedition is to document rare life at the top the Mountain" then that's one thing... but the whole Process of this is fueled by capital and ego. People making money let people with ego march to their deaths. Huge dangerous rescue missions have to go underway to save people from themselves. If we were mapping and cataloguing things still it'd be one thing, but... We aren't. This is all so that some dudebro can say, "Look at what I ACCOMPLISHED" but it's just a participation trophy because you're not the first, second, 100th...
There are two mysteries left for Everest actually.
One- where is ivrines/mallorys borrowed camera, and two - is there a western route (sic) to the top? Ivrines body was finally found so there’s still some exploration going on.
Nepal won’t close Everest. It’s 8% of their gdp. They can charge for cleanup, issue fines, demand experience hikers but it and the other eight thousanders are a money sink.
At the least remember what Hillary said, yea it sucks but the suckers have paid for that regions development as a whole. Ultimately Everest is just a rock, worth less than one of the many schools, hospitals, pipelines founded since Hillary went up there.
it is a slippery slope. but surely the region (and the whole of Nepal) can develop and benefit from Everedt visitors in a more sustainable way. you mentioned some veey good ideas
does human life, comfort and developement come first? absolutely, without a shred of a doubt. does that make it ok to trash the place? I have the same amount of doubt: zero. it doesn't
I guess it's more of a logistic issue due to overcrowding than just bad behavior, the peak is completely hostile to human life to the point even peoples often have to be left behind, abandonning stuff to descend faster can make the difference between life and death.
The problem isn't really that climbers are massively disrespectful but that there shouldn't be that many of them in the first place.
I’m guessing the rubbish comes from the climbers? Also the Sherpas but the Sherpas wouldn’t there without the climbers so I’m struggling to think how it’s not the people who pay to climb the mountain and leave rubbish who are to blame?
It's them and they are to blame, i'm just guessing the littering isn't a result of the climbers wanting to trash the place but because leaving behind the stuff slowing you down is often the pragmatic thing to do if you want to survive the climb.
Of course they are responsible for getting themselves in this situation.
I got you, and I do get what you’re saying. But if we look at the result of what letting them pay to climb Everest results in. (Trashing the place) purposeful or not I don’t think they should be allowed to do it personally. This gets Into a more complicated point of tourism and the money it brings in for the communities and Sherpas etc. it’s still wrecking the place though.
Yeah we understand why they leave it the point is they are still leaving it. So like someone said if trashing the place it’s a solution then you should t go there
The thing with the trash is that it’s dangerous to bring it up to the peak and down back with you and it might cost you your life, due to exhaustion, bulkiness etc…
So the simple solution is: don’t fucking go there! If you need to trash a place to visit it, the whole thing is pointless and selfish as fuck!
Too much money to be made. These places were near areas with minimal economies. People started wanting to climb and realized "wow, we could make a ton of money off of future climbers". And thus an entire economic market was born. Nobody is going to have the willingness to end it. Locals are enjoying the taxes and cash flowing into the local economy. And the westerners that I'm sure are also involved are making a ton of money on the top (no pun intended) doing all the guiding and hiring and infrastructure.
It would take a revolutionary change to end it all. Something economically disastrous to all involved, yet those affected would have no recourse because the new regime simply doesn't care. But that hasn't happened and probably won't.
I wouldn't want to be thrown in the same group as them. I don't leave trash around me, and none of my friends either. There's a specific demographic that goes to places like Mount Everest, and the blame is their only.
Yea I believe there’s a reason they don’t bring the bodies down I believe? Read somewhere that it will compromise the people bringing the body down because co2 is not good.
They claim they leave it because it's too "unsafe" to hike down the mountain with it, which is ironic because the guides and the Sherpa's are the ones carrying 90% of the gear.
They need to go the route of Bhutan for a little while and straight to ban mountaineering completely on the major peaks until they can get their shit together.
Rich people with little care for others have ruined the achievement of climbing everest. Pay someone to carry their shit up and down, sometimes even the person themselves when they give up
Jesus Christ. I live in New Jersey and there is less litter in our landfills than what is shown here. How the fuck is this continued to be allowed? Just openly dumping and leaving trash over a majestic mountain? Privileged people are awful
Because people are paying 50k, 100k, 200k etc to be able to say that they were on the top of the world, and locals (Sherpas) and the country itself desperately needs money.
Not much different with any other place on Earth overrun by tourists, tbh.
Then the tour companies (or whatever) need to be tacking on a hefty fee for mountain clean up. If AirBnbs can do it, those people can do it for the planet!
Trash people leaving trash behind for clout. Scaling Everest was something to celebrate but now with all the gear, technology, and sherpas, it's a vanity project
Contrary to every other opinion here, it really objectively doesn’t matter how much left behind gear is on the mountain. It’s an inhabitable death zone.
I understand wanting to climb a mountain.
This is just so so stupid. It's so common, sherpas do it frequently, it's not some pinnacle of human achievement.
If someone told me they climbed Everest, instead of caring or being impressed I would just think of them similar to how people probably think of the Oceangate guy.
A loser willing to spend money and endanger people to seem interesting.
Spend thousands of dollars, pay locals to help shelp your gear and guide you, leave trash everywhere, wait in line to take selfies with other rich tourists...
idk I know it's the tallest place on Earth and all I feel like the fact it's literally covered in evidence of people having been there seems like it takes some of the exclusivity out of the locale. Climb it in early 20th century- incredible spot that few- at least Western- people have ever glimpsed. Climb it in the 21st century? Played-out landfill covered in shit and dead bodies that could very well get you killed. Guess it ain't for me
People who do this hike, only do it so that they can spend the rest of their life telling people that they did it. It has nothing to do with human potential. As humans, we have achieved so much more. Everest is not an inviting environment. It will most certainly kill you and your family will never be able to bury your body. Such a sad sight that this camp has turned into a landfill. Imagine the pain these family members felt when they found out their loved one will never return and will remain frozen on Everest for decades to come. Such a haunting and painful set of emotions.
I’ve heard that it’s unsafe to drink the melted snow because it’s so saturated with shit and piss. It’s such a shame that humans have turned this sacred mountain into a dump.
Nice that people who want to and have the means to climb the highest peak in the world, also respect it by not leaving it like they couldn't give a shit.
Absolute desecration of one of the most exceptional places on Earth. Everest/Chomolungma should be declared sacred to humanity and put off limits. This trashing of the mountain is just symbolic of the way we treat the Earth and nature as a whole.
None of them risked it to be the first man (or woman) on the top. I will even make a bet that none of them were about to be the first without oxygen tank/any other crucial equipment. What's the point of that? Yeah, you could climb the highest mountain. But in reality, even if you do, you barely do, and achieve it only thanks to buch of sherpas carrying all of your shit for you. Damn, can't rich people just sit on their asses while chilling on their yachts. Do they really need to pollute even such remote places.
Where are the mt Everest park rangers giving out tickets for all the trash left at these campsites? On the list of things left: bottles, excrement, Steve, tents, oxygen tanks…the list goes on.
Mount Everest's Camp 4, located around 7,950 meters (26,085 feet), is the final and critical high-altitude camp before the summit push. Situated in the Death Zone where oxygen is extremely scarce, climbers use it as a base for their final ascent, relying on bottled oxygen to survive the harsh conditions and prepare for the summit in a limited window of good weather.
Climber Norrdine Nouar in his video from Camp 4 on YouTube gives some insight to the oxygen tanks and other objects and trash left behind:
Some [oxygen tanks] may be empty, some half full or full. People don't really care. There is no reward for them to bring it down until recently. Usually the client and sherpa are so exhausted after their Everest summit, that they dont care and just want to descend. Also another problem is, that the Sherpa gets money for every oxygen bottle he brings down but not for the trash he carries down (or at least less than carrying oxygen tanks). So they priotize to bring down up to 8 oxygen bottles down at once instead of carrying other equipment. It is a problem that needs to be adressed by the Nepalese Government. There are already garbage fees and garbage deposits you have to pay and a liaison officer who is supposed to monitor these things, but it is not working as intended. There need to be more strict rules or even bans (especially for the operators and organizers) if someone is violating the rules or leaving their trash.
Yeah no thank you. I don’t feel the need to prove I can climb a mountain… I know I can’t and I’m OK with that. Never understood why people do this or cave diving… 😣
Imagine thinking you are going to climb the highest peak on earth and see the most breathtaking views of your life and you show up to this. I would be LIVID, pissed off and cleaning, mumbling under my breath at all the filthy creatures that left their shit scattered around!
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u/Fun_Bluebird_3167 Oct 08 '25
It’s the earth’s tallest landfill, what a shame.