(PCM) It is a fact of life and there has even been a creative children’s book that teaches us that yes, indeed, everybody poops, however never did we imagine that human excrement would be such a major problem facing something as great and majestic as Mount Everest.
Mount Everest has a peak climbing season of only two months and during that time over 700 explorers take their chances at scaling the world’s tallest mountain which soars over 29,035 feet in the air. While many of these explorers are highly praised for their efforts at taking on the incredible feat of making such as climb, they are not receiving very much praise for much of what they leave behind on the mountainside.
It appears that many of these explorers are failing to properly dispose of their trash, urine and feces and it is beginning to create a problem that is threatening to cause pollution and the spread of disease throughout the region.
It seems that the four base camps situated at about 17,380 feet on Mount Everest have just about everything you would need including tents, equipment, supplies, food and even cooks, but guess what? No toilet!
There is a toilet tent where the human excrement is collected in drum and then taken to a lower altitude to be disposed of at at later time. Many explorers do not even bother using the facilities anyway, as most tend to dig a hole and leave their waste on the side of the mountain while others carry disposable toilet bags.
Either way it is is a situation that has many concerned and in fact the government of Nepal imposed a law last year that now requires each explorer to bring down about 18 pounds of trash from the base camp. According to Mashable, human waste isn’t the only thing that has been left on the side of the mountain. There are also about 200 dead bodies which remain frozen on the mountainside, many which are used as landmarks to guide explorers on their quest. How gruesome!
