(29 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kathmandu, Nepal – 29 May 2024
1. Record-setting Sherpa guide Kami Rita, in yellow hat, at “Everest Day” celebration
2. Fan taking photos with Kami Rita
3. Kami Rita singing autographs
4. Various of Kami Rita taking photographs with fans
5. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Kami Rita, Sherpa guide:
”At the moment, Camp 4 and Camp 3 have not been touched. There is more garbage in Camp 3 and 4 than before. The army cleanup team has been cleaning this year also but that is mostly at Camp 2 or below.”
6. Kami Rita receiving honor from Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the ceremony
7. Closer shot of the plaque given to him
8. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Kami Rita, Sherpa guide:
”For us, there needs to be an increased amount of insurance, up to 50-60 lakh rupees ($37,00 – 45,000). There should be provident funds for us.”
9. Dahal lighting up a oil lamp to inaugurate the “Everest Day” ceremony
10. Closer shot of the lamp
11. Participants at the celebration
12. Wide shot of the stage at the celebration
13. Closer shot of prime minister
14. Officials presenting awards to mountaineers
15. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime Minister of Nepal:
“It is necessary to work together to minimize the effects of climate change and manage garbage in the mountains to make it pollution-free as the mountains have fallen to the effects of climate change.”
16. Participants
17. Rally before celebration ceremony
18. Various of the rally
STORYLINE:
One of the greatest Mount Everest guides on Wednesday expressed concerns about the peak’s growing piles of garbage, as he was honored by his government to mark Everest Day.
Sherpa guide Kami Rita, who has scaled Mount Everest a record 30 times, was honored by Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Kathmandu on the anniversary of the first successful summit by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Kami Rita said he was deeply worried by the accumulation of garbage that’s been surfacing as ice and snow melt from the peak.
He said that Everest Day should really be celebrated by government funding campaigns to clean up the camps near the summit.
There have been clean-up campaigns on the mountain almost every year. A team of Nepali soldiers were still on the mountain picking up trash left behind by previous expeditions.
“At the moment, not enough garbage has been taken out from Camp 3 or 4,” Kami Rita said.
“There had been cleanup campaigns but all of that have been for either Camp 2 or below.”
Kami Rita also said Sherpa guides working on the mountain should have better conditions and benefits.
“There needs to be increased amount of insurance up to 6,000,000 rupees ($45,000) and there should be a provident fund,” he said.
The 54-year-old guide had scaled the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak twice this month, breaking his own record for the most successful climbs.
His closest competitor is fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa, who has 27 successful ascents.
Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success each year of foreign climbers aspiring to stand on top of the world.
His father was among the first Sherpa mountain guides. In addition to his Everest climbs, Kami Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.
Several climbers and people in the community were honored alongside Kami Rita.
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