Picking Up Miles High Garbage from Affluent Tourists

http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=28565

BEIJING - Tibetan volunteers are planning a trip to the top of the world's tallest mountain to pick up garbage.
The Tibetans will work with environmental protection experts over the next three years to clear up the rubbish on Mount Everest at an altitude of between 6,500 metres (21,300 ft) and 8,000 metres, China's Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

Everest has been strewn with garbage ever since the pioneering attempts at its peak in the 1920s. Since then, the climbing traffic has multiplied.

"The local government has organised volunteers many times to clear away the rubbish, yet all of them failed because no volunteers can reach that high," Xinhua said.

"The Tibetan expedition has set a target of scaling all 14 peaks in the world higher than 8,000 metres. It has made it to 13 of them so far."

More than 1,500 climbers have reached the summit of the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and China, since 1953.

At least 185 people have died on its slopes.


Story Date: 14/12/2004