The Chinese government has decided to officially keep its Everest base camp off-limits to tourists because of the huge amount of trash and litter left behind on the site. The site is now closed down for visitors who don’t have climbing permits and with a limited issue of permits, it’s unlikely that a lot of trekkers will be able to access the site this year, as per BBC.
The Tibetan base camp has a huge footfall welcoming many visitors and the number has been growing over the years. The base camp is accessible from both Nepal and the Tibetan side but it takes a longer time and a hike of two weeks to reach from the Nepal side while from the Tibetan side, you can easily access it via road in a car. This has made it attractive to people who want to reach without hiking and directly.
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The increasing popularity has come with its own set of problems because as tourists flock to the base camp leaving it in a complete mess and the base camp, Qomolangma, the Tibetan name for Mount Everest, is full of trash. The amount of trash that was collected by three clean up projects last spring was over eight tons and it included mountaineering equipment and also human feces surprisingly, according to BBC. The decision has been taken to deal with the problem properly.
This year the cleaning operations will take place in full swing as the plan is to also remove bodies of climbers who have died on the way up to the peak. The zone where the mountain air is too thin and named ‘death zone’ has bodies stuck from decades and have not been extracted given the extremely high altitude.
However a non-hikers can also take a guided tour to a monastry near the base camp which is secluded and has a great view of the Everest.