Mt Everest sherpa disgusted by climbers’ rubbish - ‘dirtiest camp I have ever seen’

Tenzi Sherpa, a sherpa working on Mt Everest, posted a video to Instagram of the mess building up at Camp IV – the last camp before the summit. Photo / Tenzi Sherpa / Instrgram

A Nepalese sherpa has shared shocking footage exposing the mess left behind by climbers camping on Mt Everest.

Tenzi Sherpa posted footage showing scores of abandoned tents, empty oxygen bottles, sanitation pads, paper, steel bowls and other piles of scraps that left Mt Everest looking like a rubbish dump.

Taking to social media, Tenzi wrote: “The dirtiest camp I have ever seen”, in reference to the video of Camp IV.

The sherpa blamed lucrative camping companies for the mess, saying it isn’t the first incident he has seen while scaling the tallest mountain in the world.

“I feel so sad every time cause I have seen many times doing expedition groups, and companies cut [their] companies logos and leave all the tents for the rest.”

Tenzi Sherpa, a sherpa working on Mt Everest, posted a video to Instagram of the mess building up at Camp IV – the last camp before the summit. Photo / Tenzi Sherpa / Instrgram

He continued: “Clean mountain campaign has been begun from many years ago, although the campaign did a good effort to clean [the] mountain … companies leave their trash on the mountain, so it’s going to be hard to clean.

“I would like to request to the government to punish companies who leave their trash on mountain … it’s a huge problem we all facing.”

Tenzi’s calls for climbers and companies to clean up their act is supported by others in the industry.

Publication Everest Today called the state of the camps “disheartening” and wanted harsher penalties for those who litter on Mt Everest.

“It’s high time we address this issue with urgency and commitment. Let’s demand stricter regulations, enforcement of clean climbing practices, and effective waste management strategies,” it wrote.

Recently a number of cleaning campaigns have been undertaken but the resources are limited and the effectiveness has varied.

During Covid, Nepal collected 10 tons of rubbish while retrieving four dead climbers from Camp IV.

Another notable initiative in 2019 was the Eco Everest project, spearheaded by Dawa Steven Sherpa and generously sponsored.

The team successfully removed two tons of garbage from Everest and other nearby peaks.

Nepal issued 478 climbing permits for the current season, surpassing the previous record of 408 permits set in 2021.