KATHMANDU, JUNE 20
This spring, for the first time, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) stationed a team of rangers at Camp II on Mount Everest. Their job was simple but important: make sure climbers coming down from the high camps were actually carrying waste with them, not just meeting their quota with rubbish picked up lower on the mountain.
By the end of the season, SPCC had removed 90,329 kg of waste from Everest, even as the mountain saw its busiest climbing season ever. Of this, 80,579 kg came from the Everest Base Camp area, including human waste, kitchen waste, mixed waste and recyclables. Another 9,750 kg, along with 1,769 poop bags, was brought down from above Base Camp.
But for SPCC, the headline number was never just the weight of garbage. It was who carried it down, and who made sure it came down at all.
The rangers were introduced after SPCC, with approval from the Department of Tourism, brought in a new rule this season requiring climbers to bring back at least 2 kg of waste from above Camp II, in addition to the existing 8 kg quota collected at Base Camp. Until now, SPCC monitoring only covered Base Camp, meaning climbers could meet their waste quota without clearing higher camps. Posting rangers at Camp II for the entire season closed that gap, ending the pattern of waste accumulating at Camps III and IV season after season.
SPCC CEO Tshering Sherpa said the rangers were deployed in line with the government's Sagarmatha cleanup directives, and that the committee plans to take the system further next season by sending rangers up to Camp IV as well. Sherpa said the South Col has long been known as the most polluted spot on the mountain, which is why SPCC wants rangers stationed there too.
The cleanup came during a record season, with 701 climbers active across Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse this spring, the highest number ever recorded. SPCC said its teams collected 1,226 kg of non-recyclable waste from Camp III and the South Col, along with 210 gas canisters, while another 6,522 kg of waste passed through its checkpoint at the Khumbu Icefall.
Beyond the cleanup, SPCC's staff also played a role in this season's most dramatic rescue story. When guide Hillary Dawa Sherpa went missing in Everest's death zone, several SPCC staff members, including those on ranger duty, paused their waste-monitoring work to join the search. Dawa Sherpa was later found alive.
SPCC was founded in 1991 by local Sherpa communities and has managed waste collection in the Everest region for over three decades. It has also maintained the Khumbu Icefall route since 1997 through its team of Icefall Doctors. With the rangers now tested through one of the busiest seasons on record, SPCC says expanding the system to Camp IV will be its main focus going into next year.