AKA: they already knew.
And then you feel like in idiot for being the last person in the world who apparently knows this not-so-secret information.
Well, my friends. I want to prevent this from happening to you. I want to share something with you I just found out about, but apparently isn't new information to everyone.
Are you ready for this?
There is traffic AND trash on Mount Everest.
WHAT!?
You might have heard about Mt. Everest. (Unless you're REALLY behind on the news.) At 29,029' or 29,035' (the jury's still out) above sea-level, it's the tallest mountain in the world.
Apparently, that makes it difficult to climb.
The first documented attempts to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest occurred in the 1920s. However, it was still a few more decades before anyone made it all the way to the top.
Enter: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norday, who successfully climbed to the summit in 1953. And hey! It only took them a few months.
To sum it up: It sounds like a bitch to climb.
You might think, what's the point in even trying?
But SHOCKER: people still do. It has become not just a past-time for serious climbers, but also a tourist attraction. Think the cost of Disney World multiplied by 12 (for a 7-day/8-night trip for two), minus 90 degrees, plus more deaths.
Whatever floats their boat, right?
That's what I thought, too...until recently. Apparently these mountain climbers/adventurers/tourists/insane people/etc. are becoming a huge problem.
If you've even driven on I-95 before, you know what traffic is. It's terrible. Also, La La Land lied to you. This doesn't happen when you're stuck in traffic:
According to BBC, people visiting Mt. Everest have reportedly stood in traffic for over two hours, waiting in queues to reach the top.
In case you missed it (as I did), this picture of mountain traffic made the rounds in 2012:
Can we just think about this for a second? These people were on the tallest mountain in the world. The average temperature is below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. And they were standing in traffic.
To give an idea of how much traffic has increased over the past two decades, the BBC article also provided the following chart from 2012:
Oh, also. Traffic makes climbing more dangerous because you're spending time in freezing temperatures, meanwhile your oxygen supply is rapidly depleting. No thanks.
It gets worse than just traffic.
People are leaving behind more trash than even Oscar the Grouch knows what to do with!
Luckily, there are now rules that state climbers must bring back their garbage with them, or else they have to pay a fine of $4,000. But unfortunately, there are more people than ever climbing the mountain and there is already several decades of trash left by previous travelers.
Since 1953, over 4,000 travelers have made it to the summit. It doesn't seem like a lot, but when you think about all the supplies they bring, it adds up.
Last year, a team from the Indian army climbed Mt. Everest to remove some of the trash. They expected to remove 8,000 pounds of waste.
Not only is there a sh*t-ton of trash up there, there's literally a ton of sh*t up there.
It is reported potentially 26,500 lbs. of human waste is left behind EVERY YEAR.
This is a problem that's obviously gross, but also a little bit of a health concern. It has the potential to make not only climbers ill, but also the local Sherpa guides, whose water supply has been getting polluted.
Aren't I painting a pretty picture for you?
Don't worry, though. It gets better.
Ha. You wish.
There are bodies on Mt. Everest.
Approximately 240 climbers have died on the mountain, and most of the bodies are still there.
I promise I won't post any pictures of these poor souls who perished on this hellish death trap. But if morbid curiosity gets the better of you. Click here.
I don't know about you, but I'm overwhelmed by all this new information. My head is seriously spinning. But, it's also 11:30 p.m., which probably isn't helping.
Before I head off to sleep and am greeted by sweet dreams involving frozen corpses and poopsicles, let's recap:
Positives of Climbing Mt. Everest
1. Pretty
Negatives of Climbing Mt. Everest
1. Traffic.
2. Trash
3. Poop
4. Bodies
I think we can all agree on the moral of the story: Don't climb Mt. Everest. Do what I do. Get into your pjs. Climb into bed. Open Google Maps. And go wild without the threat of death looming over your head.
