Mount Qomolangma
(Mt. Everest)
Volunteer Clean Up

Nearly six tons of garbage was brought down from Mt. Everest (http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/ article_view.asp?no=228195&rel_no=1)

Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mt. Everest, is know for its magestic, even ominous natural splendor as the highest mountain on earth. Accordingly, it is also high up on the list of most avid climber's "must scale" list, with hundreds of adventurers attempting to climb the 29,035-foot giant yearly (though only about 1600 climbers have actually reached its highest summit).

This same towering grandeur draws thousands of sightseers to the lower altitudes of the mountain each year as well. But, as is so often the case with popular tourism destinations, with the flurry of people, also comes an abundance of litter left behind.

Experts estimate that mountain visitors from around the world left behind 615 tons of waste upon its snowy slopes between 1921 and 1999, particularly on the Chinese side of the mountain that borders Nepal.

Scientists, particularly from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have found a slew of environmentally harmful, and in many cases, even poisonous, elements on the mountain. The most common findings are oxygen bottles, tents, spirit stoves, plastic wrappers, boxes, ropes, and cans thrown aside by climbers and expeditions, who are said to be its largest pollution protagonists. Unfortunately, China's side of the mountain is thought to be most greatly polluted.

Noguchi and team cleaning up Mt. Everest. (http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=228195&rel_no=1)

In response, a few waste-removal volunteer teams have assembled over recent years to clean up the littered slopes. This year, a team of close to 100 Chinese climbers and environmental protection volunteers journeyed to the mountain at altitudes of 5,000 to 8,000 meters to help in the clean-up endeavour known as the "2005 Great Environmental Action at the Third Polar of the Earth." Climbing the peak from the Chinese side, the clean up concluded on World Environment Day in early June. The garbage retrieved by the earth-conscious expedition was collected and sent to Lhasa for environmentally-friendly disposal by the local government.

Co-sponsored by the Sports Bureau in southwest China`s Tibet Autonomous Region, the expedition is to take place annually for five years, having started in 2004 and concluding in 2008, when the Beijing Olympic torch relay will be taken to the revered mountain.