Prelude: Mountains in an Uncertain World* - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 10

the UNU mountain research undertaking, in close association with Bruno
Messerli, I became engaged in mapping mountain hazards, both in the
Middle Mountains of Nepal and in the Khumbu region below Everest.
While environmental deterioration was not our direct concern, the negative
impact of the burgeoning infl ux of mountain climbers and trekkers along
the main trail to the Everest base camp was already apparent. Today, tens of
thousands of trekkers throng the Khumbu each year and add their detritus
to that of the commercialized attempts to push hundreds of would-be
climbers to the summit, and this within a gazetted World Heritage Site.
The northern approach to the summit from Chinese Tibet is witnessing
comparable problems, a far cry from the situation prevailing during George
Mallory's and Andrew Irving's legendary climb into oblivion in 1924.
As a member of the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal
selection committee, which includes Peter Hillary, I can reveal that not
one award has been made for mountaineering feats. While many of the
medalists were originally climbers, their most remarkable achievements
(like those of Sir Edmund) have been in the mitigation of threats to mountain
environments, protection of traditional cultures, and alleviation of suffering
in impoverished mountain communities. A few years before his death, Sir
Edmund recommended to the Nepalese government that Everest be closed
to climbing for several years. His advice was ignored.
Seven years later I can only second his recommendation and urge in
addition that steps be taken to consider extensive reorganization of the
Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park management plan. While trekking
and mountaineering has become a vital part in the progressive emergence of
the Khumbu Sherpa community toward a most appropriate higher standard
of living, once international commercialism entered the scene a disturbing
trend became established.
The title of a recent topic by Michael Kodas: High Crimes: The Fate of
Everest in an Age of Greed, alludes to a pervasive set of unethical and criminal
factors: incompetent and vainglorious expedition leaders and climbers,
staff and climbers who loot and vandalize critical equipment, and corrupt
authorities who fail to maintain the standards on which the entire industry
depends (Kodas 2008). It is time to stop glamorizing dubious heroic attempts
to conquer mountains (Lewis-Jones 2011) .
There is yet another issue that relates both to our original purpose in
the Khumbu—the United Nations University project on mapping mountain
hazards—and the way in which 'Everest-associated news' is purveyed by
the media.
By 1985 our UNU research had brought us face to face with the
phenomenon now widely known as Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).
One occurred in 1985 during our survey of the Everest area, taking the lives
of three Sherpas, and sweeping away houses, fi elds, a new hydroelectric