A heroic rescue: Efforts to clean up Everest's perilous trails

There is no shortage of people eager to conquer Mount Everest. Many climbers have paid the ultimate price for their dream of reaching the summit with their lives. Their bodies can be encountered directly on the path leading to the mountain's peak. Other eight-thousanders are no better. These images stay in one's memory forever.

Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa, a mountain guide, told the BBC that for years, he has been unable to erase from his memory the view from Lhotse in the Himalayas. The Nepalese guide worked with a German climber who attempted to ascend the fourth-highest mountain in the world in May 2012. The climbers came across the body of Milan Sedlacek, a Czech climber who had died just a few days earlier, and every climber ascending Lhotse had to pass by it.

Sherpa had no idea at the time that he would return to the place 12 years later to bring down the body of the Czech climber. He did so as a member of a team tasked by the Nepalese authorities to clean up the mountains and bring down the bodies of deceased climbers. And there are many on the local peaks.

Since mountain climbing began to be recorded there one hundred years ago, over 300 people have died in the Everest region, and many of those bodies have remained on the trail. Moreover, the number of fatalities is steadily increasing, with eight people already dying this year. According to data from the Nepal Tourism Department, 18 people died here in 2023.

The government first launched a campaign to clean the Himalayan peaks in 2019. Eight thousand mountaineers left behind tonnes of rubbish. Nepal has gained notoriety for the rubbish and bodies that have massively polluted the Himalayas, Major Aditya Karki, leader of this year's operation, told the BBC.

Karki does not hide that many people were surprised at the sight of the bodies – last year, one climber couldn't move for half an hour after seeing a dead body on the way to Mount Everest.

Many relatives of climbers who died in the Himalayas are unable to retrieve their bodies. Even if they have the funds to cover the costs, there are not enough willing to conduct the operation in the so-called death zone. The problem is also that during the year, the weather window in which the operation carries the least risk lasts only around two weeks.

It was very tough to bring back the bodies from the death zone – says Sherpa, who participated in the operation.

The bodies of four climbers brought down were found in the same position in which they died. Their transport was difficult for many reasons: the altitude, weather conditions, and regulations, to name a few. According to Nepalese law, all bodies must remain in the best possible condition before being handed over to the authorities – any damage could result in penalties.

Documents were found with two of the bodies brought down from the death zone. They were the aforementioned Czech Milan Sedlacek and the other American Ronald Yearwood, who died in the Himalayas in 2017. The identification of the other two bodies is ongoing.