Everest records divide opinions

By Alastair Lawson
BBC News

Katsusuke Yanagisawa is one of many Everest record-breakers

More climbers have conquered Mount Everest so far in 2007 than in any year since it was first scaled in 1953, mountaineering officials in Nepal say.

They say that 514 climbers have scaled the world's highest peak from the Nepalese and Tibetan side.

As the numbers increase, the different ways of getting to the top have become increasingly more weird and wonderful.

But opinion is divided as to whether the "human conveyor belt" traversing Everest is environmentally sustainable.

'Haven'

The Nepal Mountaineering Association argues that the record number of climbers is beneficial for Nepal, whereas conservationists say that such a large number is not ecologically sustainable.

Both sides advance powerful arguments.

Opinion is divided over the large number of Everest climbers

The Nepal branch of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) argues that the mountain's fragile bio-diversity is threatened by the surge, especially as this year's climbing season is in effect only half over - with another month of good climbing conditions due in October.

"Mount Everest is a haven for rare flora and fauna and of course for the endangered snow leopard and Tibetan antelope," IUCN programme officer Dependra Joshi told the BBC News website.

"All the evidence suggests that the greater the number of climbers the more this eco-system will be undermined."

Mr Joshi says that the government needs to impose stricter rules, particularly when it comes to the southern side of the mountain, which is easiest to climb, safest and most well-used.

Figures released by the government show that so far this year, 249 climbers have scaled the peak using this route.

'Frightened away'

"We have to encourage climbers - maybe by cash incentives - to use other routes, even if they are harder," Mr Joshi said.

"If we don't do this, this particular part of the mountain will end up looking more and more like a human conveyor belt, with rubbish strewn everywhere and wildlife frightened away.

"I think that climbing teams also need to make more effort to bring down the bodies of their colleagues who have perished on the peak."

He says that each year a combination of poor weather, avalanches, tiredness and altitude sickness claim a number of lives, while the final approaches to the summit contain more and more corpses.

This season alone seven people have died - one Nepali, two South Koreans, two Japanese and one each from the Czech Republic and Italy.

A British man was the first to paraglide over the peak in May

But the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Antshering Sherpa, says that with each climber paying around $25,000 for the privilege of conquering the peak, one of the poorest countries in the world is provided with much needed revenue.

"I do not think the large number of climbers is a problem," he told the BBC News website.

"It may sound obvious, but people need to remember that Mount Everest is a big mountain, and can cope with a large number of climbers.

"I recently climbed Mont Blanc in the Alps, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it is more than 10,000ft smaller yet carries around six times the number of climbers.

"Yet we seldom hear complaints about the environmental effects there, and nor should we with Mount Everest."

Mr Sherpa says that measures introduced by the Nepalese government in 1993 to reduce the level of rubbish on Everest have been successful.

"Every team that climbs Everest must pay $4,000 to the government as a rubbish deposit - and if they leave rubbish or equipment on the mountain they forfeit the money," he said.

'Checks and balances'

But Mr Joshi argues that the rubbish deposit system is not working effectively, because civil servants administering it seldom leave their desks in Kathmandu.

"Unless they are there physically to oversee it, there is always the danger that rogue climbers will ignore the rules," he said. "We need to have a system of better checks and balances."

In the meantime the number of climbers scaling the peak grows ever larger and more colourful. So far this year they include:

• A sherpa who successfully climbed the peak for a record-breaking 17th time
• An 18-year-old who became the youngest foreign woman to climb Everest
• A 71-year-old Japanese teacher, who became the oldest Everest conqueror
• A British man who set a world record by making a mobile phone call from the peak
• Another British man became the first to paraglide over the mountain

"These records are all very well," said Mr Joshi, "but if they come at the expense of the ecological future of the world's most famous mountain, I'm not so sure they are a good idea."