New rules in Nepal for the safety of mountaineers and the cleanliness of Everest

Nepal now demands that the mountaineers of the Everest carry locators GPS to facilitate their search and rescue in the event of an accident, and to take care of the elimination of their excrement, using biodegradable bags.

The last mountaineering season was one of the deadliest ever recorded, with 18 deaths on the highest mountain in the world (8,849 meters) where authorities want to improve safety.

GPS trackers, already used by many professional climbers, help track your progress towards the summit and also ensure your safety.

For the climbing season that begins this month and lasts until May, Nepal should demand smaller, powerful locators that are easy to sew onto a piece of clothing and do not require any power to operate. They must also be able to be detected even under 20 meters of compacted snow.

“GPS trackers are mandatory for climbers this year so that, in the event of an accident, their location can be accurately identified”Rakesh Gurung, director of mountaineering at Nepal’s tourism department, said Tuesday.

The local municipality also introduced a series of new regulations to preserve Everest, a sacred mountain for the Sherpas, where tons of waste is abandoned each season.

From now on, mountaineers will be responsible for the disposal of their excrement. They will have to use biodegradable bags, used for example in Antarctica, whose chemical content helps dry and solidify excrement, also eliminating bad odors.

Excrement and waste pose a health risk, especially for mountaineers who use melted snow for drinking water.

At base camp, climbers use toilets with barrels that collect excrement. But at altitude, in glacial conditions where all burial is impossible, the excrement was scattered on the surface.

Nepal is home to eight of the 14 peaks above 8,000 m in altitude and welcomes hundreds of mountaineers each spring, once temperatures become milder and winds generally less violent.

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