3 tons of gas cylinders removed from Everest

Asian Economic News, June 12, 2000

KATHMANDU, June 5 Kyodo

An American expedition team has removed some 632 cylinders of supplemental oxygen weighing nearly 3 tons from the upper reaches of Mt. Everest this spring, expedition leader Bob Hoffman said Monday.

The 10-member team also brought back to Kathmandu 435 cylinders abandoned in the mountain by Everest climbers, Hoffman said.

Some of the cylinders were displayed in Kathmandu on Monday, the Environment Day.

"Some of cylinders are believed to have been abandoned by expeditions from the 1950s and 60s," Hoffman said.

He said an estimated 300 cylinders are still buried in and around the 8,000-meter-high South Col where mountaineers climbing from Nepal side of the peak pitch camps for their final push to the summit.

The American team also collected batteries and garbage littering Everest during the clean-up campaign, which was joined by 23 Nepalese sherpas.