Everest climbers will now have to clean the peak as part of the mission

The new rule designed to clean the Everest have set potential climbers thinking on whether they wish to go ahead with the mission or not. Climbers will have to bring back with them eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of

garbage said a Nepalese official. This move is being taken in a bid to clean the world’s highest peak.

The rule will apply to climbers ascending beyond Everest’s base camp from April onwards. Each climber will have to bring back 8 kilos of trash along with their own garbage. Action will be taken against individuals who will not comply by the new rule; it could be a fine or penalty.

The peak is littered with rubbish which consists of oxygen cylinders and also climbers bodies that do not decompose due to the extreme cold. The trash will have to be submitted to the office to be set up in the next month at the base camp. Expeditions will have to submit their trash to an office to be set up next month at base camp.

In an Everest expedition a deposit of $4,000 has to be made which will be refunded after they bring back everything they took to the mountain, however the rule has not been imposed and therefore not too much success has been attained in it. Legal action will be taken against offenders to the rule.

Last month Nepal slashed fees for individual climbers to Everest and other Himalayan peaks to attract more mountaineers, sparking concerns of increased traffic and more trash on the mountains. There will be an overhaul of security for climbers from the new office to the base camp and people can approach the camps easily now.

Environmental and climbing groups have long sought to focus attention on the waste problem while clean-up projects have also been organized.  Discarded oxygen and cooking gas cylinders, ropes, tents, glasses, beer cans, plastic and even the remains of a helicopter made up 75 artworks commissioned for a Kathmandu exhibition in 2012, highlighting the environmental impact of alpine tourism.

There are hundreds who scale the mountains every year and April-May is the peak season and earns huge revenue for Nepal.