AP – One of the greatest Mount Everest guides on Wednesday expressed concerns about the peak’s growing piles of garbage, as he was honoured by his government to mark Everest Day.
Sherpa guide Kami Rita, who has scaled Mount Everest a record 30 times, was honoured by Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Kathmandu on the anniversary of the first successful summit by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Kami Rita said he was deeply worried by the accumulation of garbage that’s been surfacing as ice and snow melt from the peak.
“It is very necessary to immediately direct our attention to this,” he said, adding that Everest Day should really be celebrated by government funding campaigns to clean up the camps near the summit. There have been clean up campaigns on the mountain almost every year. A team of Nepali soldiers were still on the mountain picking up trash left behind by previous expeditions.”At the moment, not enough garbage has been taken out from Camp 3 or 4,” Kami Rita said.
“There had been cleanup campaigns but all of that have been for either Camp 2 or below.”
Kami Rita also said Sherpa guides working on the mountain should have better conditions and benefits.
“There needs to be increased amount of insurance up to INR6,000,000 (USD45,000) and there should be a provident fund,” he said.
The 54-year-old guide had scaled the 8,849-metre peak twice this month, breaking his own record for the most successful climbs. His closest competitor is fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa, who has 27 successful ascents.
