Nepalese soldiers have removed four bodies and a skeleton from Mount Everest and the neighboring peaks Lhotse and Nuptse during cleaning operation, reported DPA, quoted by BTA and NOVA, referring to the country's army. The agency reported that a total of 11 tons of garbage have been collected since April.
Mount Everest is the highest peak on Earth (8849 m). It has also earned itself the infamous nickname of the "highest landfill in the world". Tons of torn tents and clothes, food wrappers, stoves, empty bottles, aluminum cans and oxygen bottles have been abandoned on the mountain by climbers.
Debris and dozens of corpses are also visible on the way to Everest, with some corpses even serving as a kind of landmarks when climbing the summit, DPA notes. The dead are often simply left in the mountains. This is because retrieving a frozen, stiff corpse is not only difficult, but also expensive, costing between 30,000 and 60,000 euros, according to American mountaineer and blogger Alan Arnett.
In most cases, a team of six to ten Sherpas are dispatched with oxygen tanks and a helicopter takes the body away. However, there are also some families who decide to leave their deceased relatives there because of the love of the dead for the mountain, DPA points out.