It’s not about the destination, it’s the climb – to the dumpster, that is.
Last week, a man named Mingma Tenzi Sherpa scaled Mount Everest for the ninth time — but instead of being met with a beautiful view, he was met with absolute disgust for what he saw around him.
As he was climbing to the summit of the mountain, Tenzi observed a disturbing amount of litter, ranging from sanitary pads to steel bowls and spoons, to hiking gear that had been left abandoned.
Tenzi took to Instagram to share a video of the mess, which showed a closer view of the tents, sheets and ropes left behind.
“We can see the lots of tents, empty oxygen bottles, steel bowls, spoons, sanitation pad, paper [sic] a lot a thing which is used by humans,” he wrote in the caption.
“Either this work done by us who are there to climb the Everest. I feel so sad every time cause I have seen many times doing expedition groups and companies cut there companies logos and leave there all the tents for the rest.”
The Post reached out to Tenzi for comment.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, reaching 29,032 feet, according to Britannica, and it is no easy expedition.
Tenzi, who is regarded as one of the “finest mountain guides of his generation,” claimed that this was the “dirtiest camp” that he had seen in his life.
He and his team cleaned up over 440 pounds of garbage from the mountain, according to Jam Press, but he expressed that there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to cleaning up the rubbish.
Tenzi explained in his caption that the mountain does get tidied from time to time by a clean-up organization, but it’s not always enough.
“Clean Mountain Campaign has been begun from many years ago,” he wrote. “Although the campaign did a good effort to clean mountain but as always everytime companies leave there trash on mountain so its gonna be hard to clean.”
In 2014 the Nepali government launched an initiative in an effort to prevent littering on Mount Everest – if you visit, you are required to pay $4,000, but if you return with 18 pounds of garbage from your hike, your money will get refunded, according to National Geographic.
That is the same amount of refuse that each person accumulates throughout their hike on average, the outlet noted.
“I would like to request to the government to punish that companies who leave there trash on mountain its a huge problem we all facing,” Tenzi urged on Instagram.
In other new on Mt. Everest, last week, a veteran named Hari Budha Magar became the first double amputee above the knee to scale the peak.
He recalled that he “cried like a baby upon reaching the top.”