Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world – and a huge garbage dump. Employees of a Nepalese waste disposal company empty the Güsel that they collected on the mountain. Image: www.imago-images.de
Because more and more tourists want to climb the 8,000-meter peak, the highest mountain in the world is increasingly looking like a garbage dump.
April 6, 2026, 3:19 p.mApril 6, 2026, 3:35 p.m
Nepal is gearing up for the Everest season. While the various base camps at over 5,000 meters are being prepared for the annual onslaught of mountaineers, the Nepalese environmental authority has issued new rules of etiquette. This is what he reports on Mirror.
Everest climbers now have to carry special feces bags with them on their tours up Everest.
Much like the Robidog bags for dogs, they will have to be used to collect large amounts of business carried out on Everest in the future.
Traffic jam on Everest: The route to the summit is often crowded in the high season.Image: AP ALPENGLOW EXPEDITIONS
Background: The highest mountain in the world is increasingly becoming a garbage dump. Because hundreds every year want to realize their dream of climbing and there are hardly any disposal options at mountainous altitudes, waste is often carelessly thrown into nature.
The consequence of this: 50 tons of waste rot on Everest.
That’s why the environmental agency is now taking strict waste management measures. Faecal bags alone are not enough.
Every mountaineer now has to transport ten kilograms of waste from Everest in order to stop littering. That’s two kilograms more than last season, according to the mountaineering magazine Alpin.de reported.
Whether the measures against Everest littering are being adhered to is monitored by specially appointed inspectors. Anyone who violates this risks severe fines.
Another measure concerns helicopter flights, which are more strictly regulated. In the past, supposed emergency rescues had been misused to fly rich tourists who didn’t feel like descending back to the base camp.
In addition, only 400 people are expected to be granted permission to climb Everest this season. It costs the equivalent of around 13,800 Swiss francs.
With this tightened regime, Nepal is reacting to the criticism that has recently become louder and louder that Mount Everest has become a place for mass tourism. Traffic jams lasting hours and stretching all the way to the summit have become a habit.
Research was recently published showing that Sherpas sometimes poisoned their customers in order to make big money with rescue flights.
More than 300 people have died trying to climb the world’s highest mountain. The trend is increasing. In recent years, an increasing number of people have died in the Himalayas who started the expedition poorly prepared.
Nothing like peace and quiet in nature: If you want to climb Everest, you can often only do so in single file among other climbers.Image: AP @Nimsdai Project Possible
Particular criticism came from the fact that time and space on Everest had become so limited that expedition groups preferred to climb over alpinists in distress instead of providing them with help.
Around 200 deceased mountaineers line the path to the summit; they were never recovered. Other alpinists sometimes orientate themselves on them and use them as signposts.
(here)
More about overtourism on Everest:
This is what traffic jams on Mount Everest look like
Video: watson/Alina Kilongan