Everest base camp in Tibet closed to tourists due to garbage
Chinese authorities took this step because a huge amount of garbage has accumulated near the camp, and it needs to be collected and removed. According to the authorities' decision, tourists will only be able to go up to Rongbuk Monastery, which is located slightly below the base camp, at an altitude of 4,980 meters.
As the BBC notes, most tourists wishing to see Everest come to the southern base camp, located in Nepal. However, in recent years, the number of tourists wanting to see Everest from the north side has increased significantly and continues to grow.
The northern base camp, located in China, can be reached by car, while the southern base camp in Nepal requires a trek that can take about two weeks.
The problem of garbage accumulation on Everest and its surroundings has existed for many years, and the situation continues to worsen with the growing number of tourists and climbers. Since 2014, a decree by Nepal's Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation decided that every climber ascending Everest must bring back all their garbage from the mountain slope upon return.
According to the Chinese Mountaineering Association, in 2015, about 40,000 people visited the northern base camp. An absolute record was broken in the 2016-2017 season on the Nepalese side: the southern base camp then received 45,000 visitors.
As the Chinese news agency Xinhua explains, tourists will be prohibited from climbing only above Rongbuk Monastery, which is just 170 meters lower than the base camp. Climbers and those with a permit to ascend Everest will, as before, be able to stay at the base camp and camps located higher up.
The Xinhua agency clarifies that social media reports that the base camp is closed to tourists forever are not true. However, Chinese authorities do not specify when the camp will be reopened to tourists.
In January, Chinese authorities announced they would limit the number of permits issued to climb Everest to 300 per year. In 2018, more than 800 climbers reached the summit of Everest: 563 people climbed from the Nepalese side, and another 240 from the Chinese side.
The authorities' statement that the base camp would be closed to tourists was published on the website of the Tibet Autonomous Region administration in December last year. The statement says that last spring, nearly nine tons of garbage were removed from Everest: 5.2 tons of household waste, 2.3 tons of human feces, and one ton of climbing equipment – discarded or lost by climbers.
This year, authorities plan to bring down the bodies of climbers who died at altitudes above 8,000 meters above sea level in the so-called death zone, where the oxygen concentration in the air is insufficient to sustain human life. Due to the conditions in which climbers and mountaineers have to work at such altitudes – thin air, strong winds, and very low temperatures – it is impossible to bring down the bodies of the deceased by climbers' efforts. Therefore, the bodies of the dead can remain in the death zone for several or even dozens of years.