China is planning to restrict access by climbers to the summit of Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest) to allow environmental teams to carry out a huge clean-up of the mountain.

Just weeks after the Olympic torch relay across the planet’s highest peak, mountaineers are planning to scale it to clear the mounds of discarded tins, cans, bottles, oxygen canisters, rucksacks and even the occasional corpse of a climber.

In 2007, 40,000 people visited Everest’s Chinese northern side. While that is significantly fewer than the number that went up from the Nepali side to the south, they still managed to leave 120 tonnes of rubbish.

The Tibetan environmental protection agency wants to restrict access to Everest and clean up the northern foothills.

“We have a responsibility to ensure the water source of the river flowing from Everest to the sea is clean,” said Zhang Yongze, the leader of the environmental group. “Our target is to keep even more people from abusing Mount Everest,” he told the Xinhua news agency.

Everest’s 29,035ft peak is on the border between China and Nepal and, in the 55 years since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered it, thousands of climbers have visited the area, providing a significant source of income to both countries. But the routes have become hopelessly overcrowded, with every group of climbers leaving its own unmistakable footprint on the mountain.

The gruelling ascent, combined with deep snow, high altitude and thin air means that those who reach the summit tend to leave their gear up there to make the descent easier. The extreme cold prevents decomposition of most of the detritus. It is thought that there are at least 120 frozen corpses on the mountain.

To counter climbers from littering, the Nepalese government insists that climbers bring their gear back with them or risk losing a hefty financial deposit. However, no similar rule applies on the Chinese side.

Environmentalists say most of the rubbish that has accumulated on Everest is cosmetic and not a major problem, though the fact that climbers tear up the local shrub juniper to make fires is worrying because it can lead to soil erosion.

This is not the first time a cleanup on Mount everest has been conducted. Smaller-scale clean-ups have already been attempted before: the last such effort was in 2004, when a team of 24 volunteers removed eight tonnes of junk. In 2006, another cleaning expedition retrieved 1.3 tonnes of rubbish.

The planned Chinese campaign will take place in the first half of 2009 to protect the fragile ecology of the Himalayan plateau. The exercise is also aimed at preserving the melting Rongbuk glacier, which has retreated 490ft at the base of Everest in the past decade, Mr Zhang, the clean-up leader, said.

Via - Independent Image by Rebirth