Chris Harling is sniffing about on our mountain summits.
Sitting alone, on the roof of England, Scafell Pike, on a beautiful hot afternoon in August, I gazed out across Lakeland, soaking up the fabulous vista. My eyes were telling me how lucky I was to be there. My ears, tuned in to the serenity, told me the same. My nose told me a different story…
Last year I was fortunate enough to climb Mount Everest from the Tibetan (Chinese) side. Now, let’s face it China does not have the best reputation in the world for its environmental policies. In fact, a question I get asked a lot is “Was there loads of rubbish at base camp?”
Base camp area was spotlessly clean – every expedition is checked to ensure everything that is brought in, is also taken out – and I mean everything! Unbelievably, a truck drove round all the camps on a weekly basis taking all carefully bagged up rubbish away…a days off road driving from the nearest village and 5100m above sea level! Occasional evidence of previous expeditions exists high on the mountain itself – the odd wrecked tent or spent oxygen cylinder. Most expeditions genuinely do try to clear the mountain of all equipment and rubbish as they retreat. A Sherpa “kindly” loaded my rucksack with 6 spent oxygen cylinders to take down from 200m below the summit!
Here in the Lakes, away from the dizzy heights of the “death zone”, the simple act of taking all our rubbish home with us should be pretty easy by comparison – well you would have thought so…
…Back on Scafell, what exactly was getting up my nose? Why did the summit of our highest mountain smell like a Kathmandu back alley? Rotting fruit! It is a sad fact that many of our popular mountains are suffering from the belief that “It’s ok to dump peel, cores and skins because they’ll biodegrade naturally.” Yes they do – but slowly. On a hot calm day you can smell it clearly – almost overpowering.
Take the trouble to look between or under the summit rocks and you see the shocking numbers of banana skins and apple cores left by unthinking walkers. Clearly, the odd apple core tossed well away from the path does not constitute major environmental damage. However, the problem is compounded because of the sheer numbers visiting the popular mountain summits and the age-old tradition of having lunch when we get to the top!
Most of us do take the remnants of our packed lunches back home with us. Let’s try and spread the word to those who don’t and keep our beautiful summits in peak condition!
Mountain Sense
Chris Harling is a director of Mountain Sense and has worked as an instructor for 15 years. Though qualified in a wide range of activities, he specialises in teaching climbing and mountaineering.
