Apa to summit Mt Everest for 21st time

ELIZA MANANDHAR

KATHMANDU: World record holder Apa Sherpa is going to summit Mt Everest for the 21st time.

Having succeeded in the Eco-Everest Expedition 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Eco Everest Expedition 2011 is goping to head towards Mt Everest Base Camp from Kathmandu — on Wednesday — under the leadership of Dawa Steven Sherpa, managing director of Asian Trekking Nepal and Apa Sherpa, World Record holder of 20 ascents of Mt Everest, as a Climbing Leader of the Expedition.

According to Dawa Steven Sherpa, the organiser of Eco Everest Expedition, the expedition is focused on climbing in an eco-sensitive manner to keep Mt Everest clean and collect garbage, debris and waste left by past expedition groups.

The collected garbage will be brought down to the base camp by the members of the clean up team for disposal. “The Eco Expedition would again be using the alternative energy solutions like parabolic solar cookers, solar lightings and ultraviolet light pens for water purification,” he said.

Since 2008, the Eco Everest Expeditions have been collecting and bringing around 12,000 kg of garbage from the region.

They have also brought four died bodies recovered from the mountain for a dignified burial, he said, adding that the expedition plans again to collect and bring down garbage from the high altitude.

The team targets to bring 4,000 kg of garbage down from the mountain like earlier expedition on the basis of ‘Cash for Trash’ programme, which offers Rs 100 for a kg of garbage brought down to Base Camp.

“Together with Japanese Mt Everest summiteer and environmentalist Ken Noguchi, the expedition aims to bring down another 1,000 kg of garbage between Camp II and the Summit,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, immediate past president of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).

“The aim is to clean up a total of 5,000 kg of garbage from Mt Everest this year,” he added.

Dawa Steven Sherpa and his Eco Everest Expedition team has been giving continuity to the initiative to create awareness among locals and climbers to help keep Mt Everest and the Himalayan Mountains clean with their message to ‘stop climate change’ as it destroys the Himalayan environment and threatening lives and livelihoods of the mountain communities.