What comes to mind when you watch \"Everest Cleaners\"?

\"Everest Cleaners\" tells the story of a group of Sherpas from Nepal who embark on a life-threatening journey to Everest’s \"death zone\" (above 8,000 meters above sea level). It is to remove the trash from Mount Everest and restore it to its original appearance. The devastated Mount Everest – once, Mount Everest was a sacred name. As the pinnacle of the world, it symbolizes supreme greatness and captivates all explorers. Her appearance, covered in snow all year round, makes people affectionately call her the “Goddess Peak”. But in the documentary, she appears as follows: the rocks exposed after the ice and snow melt are striking to see. The ice and snow were mixed with grayish-black debris, making it extremely dirty. The grayish-black residue is black carbon, which mostly comes from vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions. Black carbon, with its strong light-absorbing properties, accelerates the melting of ice and snow on Mount Everest.

And that’s not even the worst; as the Sherpas moved further ahead, Mount Everest came into view, covered in trash, excrement, and corpses. “The “Death Zone,” with over 150 corpses and 10,000 pounds of trash, has severely affected the ecological environment of Mount Everest. Mount Everest, which is the source of water for the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Lancang River, Ganges River, and Indus River, has long become the \"world’s highest garbage dump,\" putting the drinking water supply for 1 billion people at serious risk.

Why is there so much trash on Mount Everest? The answer is: the commercialization of Everest tourism. In May 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest, opening the way for humanity to reach the highest point on Earth. Since then, the number of people who go on expeditions to Mount Everest has continued to rise. After the year 2000, tourism to Mount Everest grew, and the number of tourists who came to climb it exceeded the mountain’s capacity! To keep their load light, climbers often discard trash everywhere. In the face of survival, all of humanity’s so-called civilization and courtesy are cast aside. Challenging Mount Everest is no longer a game for the brave, but rather a tool for the wealthy to show off. Mount Everest is no longer mysterious; like any other tourist attraction, it is covered with human footprints and is even overcrowded, filled with noise and clamor.

In the face of the sacred and pure snow-capped mountains, human greed for fame and selfishness become evident, and that garbage and waste serve as the best proof of it. “The Cleaners of Everest” – A Tribute to Ordinary Heroes. It is not accurate to say that only the evil side of human nature exists; in those \"cleaners of Everest\", we can also see kindness, courage, and resilience. The Sherpas are the children of the Himalayas; legend has it that they possess a third lung, and they regard Mount Everest as their mother, their goddess. Therefore, they regard the task of cleaning up trash on Mount Everest as the greatest honor and take pride in it. Unlike other documentaries that are so exquisite that every frame of them could be used as a wallpaper, “Everest Cleaners” appears rough yet remains highly authentic. This is the first time these Sherpas have used a GoPro to film the process of picking up trash on Mount Everest. Purna from the team even treats the GoPro as a treasure, never leaving it behind. It’s less of a process of picking up trash and more of a life-threatening journey! Even experienced mountaineers on a mission to clean up trash on Everest are very likely to never return. During this stage of their lives, they faced high-altitude sickness, avalanches, ice falls, shortages of water and food, and overwork; each of these challenges was like passing through the gates of death.

As they passed by the kelp ice waterfall, the Sherpas used ropes to secure ladders, creating a path through which people could survive. As they moved forward step by step, shakily, along the ladder between the ice shelves, Pai Ye couldn’t help but worry about them through the screen. The most dangerous part was when they discovered the body and wanted to take it back to the camp; the 65-degree ice surface rendered their ice boots ineffective, so the whole group had to rely on ropes for support. If one slides down, death is inevitable. A sudden storm made things even more difficult for them; except for the captain, Namgar, all the team members retreated to the camp. Captain Namgar was exhausted after digging out the body half-buried in ice, and fainted after dragging it for 500 meters. Fortunately, the team members arrived in time; otherwise, Namgar would likely have rested here forever. At the end of the documentary, Captain Namgar unfortunately died in subsequent operations.

The story of \"Everest Cleaners\" may not resonate with us who are thousands of miles away from Everest. But the story of the Sherpas is just the tip of the iceberg; there are countless other ordinary heroes who also risk their lives to protect beautiful landscapes and their homes. They are either park sanitation workers who can move around on rooftops, or simply urban sanitation workers who clean the cities. Even the trash we discard carelessly requires them to exert effort, and sometimes even sacrifice, to make amends for our mistakes. Some people say that there are certain beautiful places one really wishes humans could never set foot in. Pai Ye didn’t agree; such a statement could only remain an idea in theory, as it was difficult to put into practice. Not to mention those scenic spots, even the public spaces in our daily lives should not be recklessly damaged. Protecting the environment should be a shared understanding among all people, rather than someone else bearing the burden for you.