Ken Noguchi
Ken Noguchi is a mountain climber. He has climbed Mount Everest. It wasn't the Japanese climber's first visit to the top of the world's highest mountain. He's climbed it five times and he is going to do it again. He doesn't do it for fun He goes to there to collect something – rubbish.
Ken's team
Ken's team of climbers from Japan and Nepal have collected over 500 kilograms of rubbish and brought it down the mountain. They have collected tins, tents, sleeping bags, food, medicine and empty oxygen bottles. Where has all this rubbish come from?
Sir Edmund Hillary
and
Tenzig Norgay
The first people to climb Mount Everest were Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand , and Tenzig Norgay from Nepal (the home of Mount Everest) reached the top in May 1953. Since then, modern equipment has made it a lot easier, and thousands of people have climbed the mountain. Unfortunately they have left tonnes of rubbish there, and it doesn't decompose in the cold air. Now there is so much rubbish that people have called the mountain 'the highest rubbish dump in the world.
Display
Ken Noguchi wants to make people aware of the problem. He has taken some rubbish to Japan and Korea and put it on display. 'We must keep the world's highest mountain clean', he said. Things are better now. All climbers must brig their own rubbish back or pay a big fine. However, Ken thinks there is probably about 50 tonnes of old rubbish still there.