Climbers clear mountain of garbage from Everest

KATHMANDU, May 29 (Reuters) Climbers from Japan and Nepal picked up 500 kg (about 1,000 lbs) of tins, old tents, food and medicines littered on Mount Everest over decades by mountaineers, the climbers.

Hundreds of climbers carrying tonnes of supplies try and climb the 8,850 metre Mount Everest every year, adding to the piles of trash on its slopes.

Japan's Ken Noguchi, who led the latest in a series of cleaning campaigns on the Everest, said most of the garbage his team collected on the northern side of Mount Everest in the past month had been handed over to authorities in Tibet.

''We have brought some of the garbage with us which will be displayed in Tokyo and Seoul to raise public awareness to keep the mountain clean,'' Noguchi told Reuters after returning from the mountain, from yesterday.

Japanese and Koreans are among frequent climbers of Mount Everest.

Noguchi had led several cleaning campaigns to the mountain in the past and has so far collected 8.8 tonnes of rubbish from the Nepali as well as the Tibetan side of Mount Everest.

Nearly 2,000 people have climbed Mount Everest and at least 202 have died trying to do so.

REUTERS CS SBA BST0441