Mountain of Litter Spoiling Everest Majesty

Mount Everest remains an irresistable lure for hundreds of climbers every year—and it shows in a bad way. In the wake of Edmund Hillary's death, the Independent surveys the landscape of the world's highest mountain and finds it littered with climbers' trash. It's a matter of logistics, experts say. It's simply not easy to schlep home empty oxygen containers and the like from 29,000 feet.

"The trail leading to the summit remains littered with more than 200 tonnes of garbage,” agrees the Kathmandu Post. Adventurers such as Stephen Venables, the first man to climb the summit without oxygen, say trash is inevitable. "It's the sheer volume of human traffic now that's the problem.” (More Mount Everest stories.)