“Apa will lead a 22-member team of climbers that will seek to bring down five tons of waste from the mountain´s slopes,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, former managing director of Asian Trekking, the organizer of Eco Everest Expedition-Spring 2011. [break]
Another illustrious name in the team is the 37-year-old Japanese alpinist and environmental activist Ken Noguchi, who, in 1999, became the youngest climber to scale the highest mountains of all seven continents. Rhys Miles Johns of the United Kingdom currently holds that record, having scaled the seventh peak on his 20th birthday in 2006. Noguchi will join Apa later this week.
Asian Trekking´s Managing Director Dawa Steven Sherpa is co-leader of the expedition.
“This expedition will climb in an eco-sensitive manner to keep Everest clean and collect garbage, debris and waste left behind by past expeditions,” Dawa said. “The collected garbage will be brought down to the Base Camp by members of the clean up team for proper disposal.”
The expedition will set eco-sensitive climbing practices in motion by using parabolic solar cookers, solar lightings and ultraviolet light pens for water purification.
This is the fourth Eco Everest Expedition in as many years. The previous three expeditions brought down a total of 12,000 kilograms of waste, apart from recovering four bodies that were also brought down for a dignified burial.
This time, the members are aiming to bring down 4,000 kilograms from the slopes between the Base Camp and Camp II, and another 1,000 kilograms from between Camp II and the summit.
The clean up is done under a “cash for trash” program that offers Rs 100 per kilo of waste carried down to the Base Camp. At the Base Camp, the waste will be sorted out. The biodegradable and burnable waste will be handed over to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a non-governmental organization.
The non-degradable and non-burnable waste will be brought to Asian Trekking´s warehouse in Khumjung.
Asian Trekking and The North Face are chief sponsors of the expedition.
Apart from Dawa and Noguchi, the expedition has seven Americans, eight Indians, three Brazilians, a Spaniard, a Mexican and a Swiss member.
Of late, concerns have risen over ecological damage to the mountain caused by oxygen bottles, ropes, and wastes left behind by climbers.
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