In reply to Webster:
> people should absolutely clean up after themselves rubbish wise, if you can carry it up you can carry it down... as for the shit, where do you expect it is going to go?
Well, you've answered your own question; since it's been carried up, it should be carried down.
Since things aren't going to change, perhaps the answer is to make those paying to ascend pay an inevitably hefty cleanup surcharge.
Mountains are a natural resource for the economy of Nepal to exploit. I sense that we're getting to a tipping point where the government of Nepal will realise that if they want Everest to continue to be the goose that lays the golden tourist eggs then those tourists are going to have to pay extra so that their brown tourist logs can be adequately disposed of.
Or maybe I'm behind the times and this is already in play, or in operation. Whichever, the still noteworthy and aspirational goal of climbing to the highest peak on Earth could soon be considered less so if the journey becomes a breathless ascent of an open latrine.
T.