Islamabad: The world-famous peak K2, known as the ‘King of Mountains’, in the north of Pakistan, saw a record-breaking number of climbers with nearly 200 summits in 2022.
While these climbers come back with breathtaking memories and photos, they often leave behind tons of garbage and human waste at the world’s second-highest mountain. This is not just disgusting but is contributing to pollution and environmental degradation in this pristine mountainous region.
Litter piling up at K2 worries locals
With more glory-seekers and tourists visiting each year, K2 is becoming increasingly polluted. The mountaineering community raised environmental and health concerns as they shared photos and videos of tattered tents, empty oxygen cylinders, abandoned ropes, and human waste – all in the middle of the splendid snowcapped landscape of the Himalayas.
Sad and disappointed to see mounds of trash piled up at K2, a young Pakistani mountaineer Sajid Ali Sadpara, who has summited the K2 twice, is extremely worried. “This is my home and it breaks my heart to see our beloved K2 in this disgusting state,” said 21-year-old Ali Sadpara while talking to Gulf News. “The significant amounts of waste and pollution coming with the increasing number of tourists is harmful to those who live in and around mountains” but also those beyond as the Karakoram range serves as a watershed for the Indus River basin.
While tourism is an “economic lifeline for the people of Gilgit Baltistan”, he says that the ever-high number of tourists with limited environmental and social sustainability measures could lead to extreme negative impacts. “The mountain ecosystem is fragile. This increasing garbage problem is a threat to wildlife and the people who live in these mountains. The waste pollutes water which is a health risk to downstream communities.”
K2 cleanup campaign
To tackle the trash problem, Sadpara has decided to lead a massive K2 cleanup campaign and has started preparations for the cleanup in the summer of 2023 with a team of about 20 mountaineers. “I could not wait any longer. So I announced to voluntarily clean up this iconic mountain of Pakistan which is also the final resting place of my beloved father.” His father, Mohammad Ali Sadpara, Pakistan’s celebrated mountaineer, was lost on K2 forever while attempting to summit the 8,611-metre peak, with fellow climbers Iceland’s Jon Snorri, and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr, in February 2021.
Sadpara Junior has already made his mark in the mountaineering world by summiting the ‘Killer K2’ twice as well as the world’s 11th tallest Gasher¬brum-I (8,080m) and 13th tallest Gasher-brum-II (8,035m). Sajid Ali Sadpara is the first Pakistani to summit the world’s 8th highest mountain Mount Manaslu (8,163m) in Nepal without oxygen in September 2022 and he plans to climb Mount Everest, also without supplemental oxygen, in 2023.
For the time being, his focus is on K2 cleanup for which he says he is setting up a team of local mountaineers. During the month-long campaign, “we will collect all garbage, the abandoned tents, food containers, plastic bottles, even human waste. We’ll especially remove the old and used ropes that are very dangerous and have already claimed two lives in winter 2021” he shared. After hauling off waste, he plans to recycle as much as possible with a partner organisation.
Sadpara says he is currently in the process of reaching out to the provincial and federal governments of Pakistan, armed forces, and the local and international mountaineering organisations to “support the initiative, to help clean up K2 and also formulate a policy for sustainable tourism.” He thanked the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi who announced a grant of Rs1.5 million (US$6622) for the month-long K2 cleanup campaign.
Separately, the Nimsdai Foundation, run by Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, has also announced a K2 cleanup next year. A video posted on the charity’s social media page showed the mess left behind on K2. “The rubbish on K2 at camp 2 was so bad this year, our founder Nirmal Purja nearly threw up from the smell,” the charity said. “It’s time to take action”.
After the peak climbing season this year, some 1,610kg of trash, including climbing gear, tents, ropes, oxygen canisters, batteries, and plastic bags, was collected between the K2 base camp and camp 4 this year under a campaign by the Gilgit-Baltistan government and Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP) during July 19 and August 18. The CKNP team collected an estimated 20,000kg of trash between the Baltoro and the 8,000m base camps this year compared to 14,200kg of garbage from this region last year which was a moderately quiet season due to the pandemic, according to CKNP ecologist Yasir Abbas Rizvi.
