As the highest mountain in the world, Everest will always get more attention than others. So Everest is chosen to be cleaned, more than others. Some expeditions just do it to get attention and funding to climb it, others really try to do something good. It’s easy to question all these initiatives, and perhaps, the money spend by climbers to climb a mountain, could be spend more wisely. But if we raise that question, then everything we do for our own entertainment can be questioned isn’t it? Where do we draw the line then?
I personally don’t think that it’s a good idea to say to climbers: “don’t climb anymore because you destroy the mountain”. I think it’s better to get a dialogue started about how the climbing community could minimize their impact and perhaps, spread awareness about even more important issues and raise money to support local problems. If a team of Everest climbers is able to get funding for this, then that might be a good thing. Even if personal interest get mixed up. Or does it makes some of us jealous because we spend so much private money on our own expeditions?
Anyway, there are many people trying to do something good. Perhaps the road to perfection is difficult and unclear, but at least there are some people trying to make the world a better place. Let’s not just drop a few firm and populist phrases here, it’s better to start a real dialogue! We all know the famous words of our favorite Asian philosopher: “every journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step”. Let’s just do that and keep this dialogue going...
More info? See: http://www.muchbetteradventures.com/news/view/168/how-dirty-is-everest-the-everest-clean-up-debate
Armand - Mountain Consult
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