When I first signed up to trek to Nepal’s Everest Base Camp, I was excited to see some of the planet’s most spectacular natural features, from giant glaciers to soaring peaks, but I was also a little apprehensive. In recent years, news stories of mountains of human waste, abandoned tents, and overcrowding on Everest have hijacked the social narrative surrounding the world’s tallest peak. Was I going to be hiking through pristine environments or picking my way through mountains of garbage?
If you have the same concerns, I’ll cut straight to the chase here and let you know that the trek to Everest Base Camp is not heaped with trash. Various sustainability initiatives have been put in place to improve the conditions on the mountain, from making it more difficult to join an expedition to banning many single-use plastics. And it’s important to remember that the trekking industry and route that takes people along the Khumbu Valley is a whole different story from the landscape between Base Camp and the Summit.
