Drones fly to the aid of Sherpas cleaning the slopes of Everest

On the icy slopes of Everest, where silence and icy winds usually reign, it's now the dull roar of flying machines that disturbs the tranquility of the place. 

At dawn, as the light struggles to pierce the veil of clouds, a squadron of giant drones takes to the skies above Everest Base Camp. Precise and methodical, they hover over the gaping crevasses and fields of ice, places where once only the sherpas dared to venture, their shoulders weighed down by sacks overflowing with rubbish.

Against this grandiose backdrop, the drones perform a strange ballet, their mechanical arms lifting bin bags full of rubbish: leftover food, empty oxygen cylinders and bits of plastic abandoned by generations of mountaineers. In just a few minutes, they accomplish what would have required hours of effort and involved mortal risks for humans. Where it would have taken a Sherpa four hours to lower a twenty-kilo rucksack, the drone needs just six minutes to negotiate the 700-metre difference in altitude between Camp 1 and the base camp.

These machines, designed to withstand temperatures of -20°C and winds of over 40 km/h, brave the elements to accomplish this titanic task. The highest peak in the world and its foothills, victims of mass tourism, have become the highest open-air dump on the planet. Every spring, tens of thousands of hikers converge on the base camp, and the accelerated melting of the ice, a consequence of global warming, is releasing waste that has been forgotten for decades, exacerbating pollution and making rubbish collection ever more perilous.

This year, 70% of the rubbish usually carried by hand by the Sherpas was transported by this flying squadron. But the challenge remains immense: more drones, capable of lifting heavier loads, are needed to hope to get to the bottom of this mountain of rubbish.

Behind this revolution on Everest is the Nepalese start-up Airlift Technology, backed by Chinese partners. New models are in the pipeline, with manufacturers from all over the world offering their prototypes to restore the sacred mountain to its original purity.

(MH with LpR - Source : Courrier international - Picture: Unsplash)