ON July 22, Wajid Nagar and his team commenced the journey to scale the mighty K2. The climber was prepared for an array of challenges during the expedition, but what caught him by surprise were the mounds of trash piled up at the second-highest mountain in the world.

“As soon as we reached Camp 1, in front of us was pile upon pile of trash, including corpses, abandoned ropes, tin packs, tents, climbing gears, human waste, and plastic wrappers,” recalled Wajid. Most of the trash was found at camps 1, 2, and 3.

Wajid is not the only person who was concerned about the garbage. Sarah Strattan, a US-based climber who arrived in GB in June to summit K2, had similar concerns.

“Camps 1 and 2 were the worst,” she told Dawn.com. “And you camp right on top of it.”

Strattan said the trash also littered the climbing route. “We melt the snow for water at all camps, and if the snow is dirty, it can make us sick,” she added.

Plastic waste left behind on world’s second-highest peak may contribute to accelerated glacial melting, expert warns

One of the world’s most difficult peaks to summit, K2 hosted a record number of climbers this year. According to the Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism Department, 204 permits were issued for expeditions on the K2 this summer.

Nepal’s popular climber and athlete Nirmal Purja echoed Strattan’s thoughts. “The rubbish at Camp 2 was so bad this year that I almost threw up from the smell,” he recalled in a social media post.

Wajid said the trash, especially the ropes, was also fatal for climbers. “Because there are so many ropes, sometimes due to the weather you end up taking the wrong rope, which has been there for a while and weakened. Halfway through the climb, the rope gives up and you fall to your death,” he explained.

The mountaineer also said all the trash couldn’t be brought down in a day, or by a handful of people. “It would need another expedition.”

The GB government organised a campaign to clear the garbage earlier this year, after almost a decade.

Yasir Hussain, director of the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP), told Dawn.com a team of eight climbers was sent to collect the trash from the K2 basecamp all the way up to Camp 4, at a height of 7,800m.

The clean-up mission lasted from July 19 to Aug 18. “The team ended up collecting 1,610kg of trash, including climbing gear, tents, ropes, cylinders, batteries, and shopping bags,” he said.

The garbage was then discarded at CKNP’s dumpsite. The official said separate camps had been set up for collecting waste every year and an incinerator was also fixed in the Askoli area to recycle and burn it. He admitted the waste this summer was the highest collected in years because of the number of expeditions on the mountain.

GB Tourism Deputy Director Sajid Hussain told Dawn.com every team that arrived to scale K2 was first briefed about avoiding restricted zones of the mountain and bringing back trash. The department also charges $200 from every mountaineer for garbage collection, which is later used for cleanup drives. But he regretted that climbers often ignored the guidelines.

Mountaineer Wajid, however, called the guidelines “rubbish”. He said that during his expedition, he had picked up and brought back nearly 22kg of trash. He also accused foreign climbers of littering the mountain, adding that the organisations that claimed to collect garbage in exchange for a fee were “more words than actions”.

With the number of people summiting K2 rising each year, the solution lies more in not littering than cleaning.

Haider Raza, the regional head of WWF-GB, said the impact of an individual on the mountain was way more than a group’s.

All the 8,000m peaks in Pakistan produce between 15 and 20 tonnes of solid waste per year, of which 86pc is generated from K2. The ecologist said this figure didn’t include all the garbage on the mountain that must be in tonnes. “All this trash, including bodies, can stay up in its original condition for more than 1,000 years because everything is preserved in snow.”

Raza explained the plastic, when exposed to the sun, produced carbon monoxide, accelerating the melting of glaciers. “All the waste then flows down into rivers and streams, creating problems not just for people but also the aquatic life.”

While the mess on K2 created a buzz, there is still hope for the future.

GB tourism department’s Sajid told Dawn.com that they were mulling refunding of the $200 fee charged from climbers who brought back their trash in a bid to encourage the practice. “We are also planning awareness campaigns to educate climbers more about collecting their own trash.”

Separately, the Nimsdai Foundation, run by mountaineer Purja, has announced a ‘Big Mountain Cleanup’ for K2 next year, it said in an Instagram post.

Sarah Strattan proposed climbing companies come together and be involved with the CKNP cleanup crew to alleviate the trash problem.

“The K2 is one of the most beautiful and amazing mountains on planet Earth and it needs to be respected as such,” she added.

A detailed version of this report can be accessed on dawn.com

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2022