Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494132
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 MARCH 2023 NEWS EVER since Edmund Hillary and sher- pa Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest in 1953, thousands have climbed to the highest point on Earth. Standing tall at a height of 8,849 me- tres, Mount Everest remains an attrac- tion, but popularity also brings with it a significant waste problem. Cleaning up Mount Everest has now become an en- vironmental concern. This is what spurned Mark Galea Pace, founder of Coast is Clear, a foundation that carries out public clean-up cam- paigns, to trek up Mount Everest. For him, this was an environmental mission as much as a fun adventure. Mark contacted MaltaToday from his cabin after an eight-hour walking expe- dition to speak of his adventure, describ- ing the scenery as simply breath-taking. "This journey taught me to believe in myself. To keep going, step after step, no matter the odds, no matter the pain," Mark said. The journey to Mount Everest proved to be testing for the activist. Starting from the very beginning, when leaving Malta to Nepal, Mark had his flight can- celled several times. "It was more difficult to get here than to climb that mountain," Mark recount- ed while laughing. The climber experienced a series of cancelled and fully booked flights, first due to increased traffic to Istanbul fol- lowing the Turkey earthquake, and then due to Storm Helios spreading over the Mediterranean. "My wife and kid regarded it as a warning that something bad was about to happen if I left for Nepal and begged me not to go," he explained. Mark eventually flew from Malta to Rome, where he grabbed a flight to Qa- tar and then another to the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. On the Saturday of arriving there he met six strangers who became his fami- ly in the arctic conditions of Everest. "There's a sherpa guide, five Nepalese porters, and myself. The porters were Cleaning the Earth's highest peak, a trash bag at a time The inspiring journey of a Maltese activist on a mission to clean Mount Everest. Marianna Calleja meets Mark Galea Pace meant to stop at the base camp, but they appreciated my dedi- cation and continued clean- ing with me the trails as well," Mark said. Despite several clean-up ef- forts over the years, the Ever- est Summiteers Association believes that the Earth's high- est peak is coated in around 30 tonnes of garbage. Mark's cleaning party gath- ered some 25 big bags, equiv- alent to 60kg of trash. Howev- er, they only cleaned the base camp, sitting at a height of 5,364m. "You require special permis- sions to reach Camp One to Four," Mark explained, before giving a cheeky smile and indi- cating that his plans might take him there in the future. The temperatures could get as low as -5°C during the day and even lower the closer you get to the summit. Without excluding people who litter simply because they are ignorant on the serious risks posed to surrounding communities, Mark blames the cold conditions tiring people and causing them to forget to pick up their trash or gather their equipment. While pausing to catch his breath, Mark tells MaltaToday, that this adventure was not all plain sailing. With similar symptoms to that of a hangover, Mark suf- fered altitude sickness three days into the journey. "I was missing my wife and my son. I wished I could cuddle my dog. I was weeping for the last two hours of the trip" The Everest trip was somewhat of a spiritual journey for a man who has made it a mission to clean up land and sea. In summer, Mark Galea Pace regularly travels by boat and a cooler full of beer for energy to clean up the seas. Throughout the winter, he travels with his truck and spreads awareness with his team