Chinese drone company DJI (Da Jiang Innovations) is working with Buddhist nation Nepal to supply heavy left drones that will help clear the estimated 140 tons of garbage on Mt. Everest. Perhaps more distressingly, over 300 bodies of climbers are scattered on the mountain.
World’s Highest Garbage Dump
At least one body has been on the mountain since 1924, but growing incursions of climbers have grown the number of bodies and the amount of debris on the slopes. DJI reported in June, ”Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, has seen 6,664 successful summits as of 2023. With the increasing number of climbers each year, Everest has also become known as the “world’s highest garbage dump.” According to the Nepal Times, approximately 140 tons of waste have accumulated on Everest over seventy years. This waste includes oxygen bottles, food packaging, human waste, and even the bodies of climbers who perished on the mountain.”
Buddhists, who according to a friend who practices the faith, see all creation as tied together by invisible fibers, while prominent elements are visible – us, for instance. We and other visible elements of creation are evidence of our inter-relatedness. Buddhists perceive mountains as significant creations worthy of our awe and respect, a greater symbol of the unknowable. Defiling Mt. Everest is therefore a sacrilege which must be remedied. The world’s highest garbage dump is an affront to the rest of creation.
The DJI FlyCart FC30
One remedy may be DJI’s FlyCart FC30, a heavy-lift drone with the ability to scale significant levels of Everest and carry up to a 40 kilogram (88 pound)* payload 16 kilometers (just under 10 miles) at 20 meters per second (45 mph). This load-carrying ability can replace the slower, more laborious work of Sherpa guides and speed up the clean-up efforts.
The FlyCart can achieve a maximum altitude of 6,000 meters (19,690 feet), high enough to reach most base camps. That’s one advantage of these electric aircraft at altitude. They can operate in the thin, high air without losing power at temperatures from -20 to +45 degrees Celsius (-4 to +113 degrees Fahrenheit). The only deficits would be aerodynamically for the craft’s eight rotors. A second 11.3 kilogram (24.9 pound), 38.000 mAH battery pack increase flight time, but lowers payload t0 30 kilograms (66 pounds). DJI notes, “The payload capacity of DJI FlyCart 30 decreases as the takeoff altitude increases. 6,000 m is the maximum safe altitude when flying in dual batteries mode without a payload. With a full 30kg payload, the maximum safe altitude is 3,000 meters.”
A complex suite of electronics including dual phased array radar enables operator control, terrain avoidance, and nearly pin-point delivery. In hover mode, the FlyCart can hold position within ±10 centimeters (under 4 inches). An operator peering at the controller’s screen will be able to plant the FlyCart’s payload precisely.
FC30 drones can grip a package or attach to it with a winch coupling. The designers at DJI have programmed an anti-swing control system to keep a load centered under the drone, a critical feature in the gusts and irregular terrain of Everest.
Redeeming Everest
the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) is charged with clearing the mountain, which up to now has relied on Sherpa labor. Sherpas, the native guides on Everest, bring back trash from the mountain, use helicopters to recover bodies, and generally assist climbers. The garbage issue is significant enough that the SPCC requires a $4,000 deposit from each climber. If a climber fails to return with at least eight kilograms (17.2 pounds) of garbage, they lose the deposit. It’s dangerous work, with an annual loss of climbers and Sherpas. Records show that between 1953 to 2023, nearly 50 Sherpa porters lost their lives on the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous features on Everest.
Those deaths and those of climbers make an enormous and often excruciating challenge. Descriptions of the guides attempting to chip ice away from buried corpses are too intense for this venue. Accept that these brave souls go above and beyond in every aspect of their working lives.
It can only be hope that their technological, aeronautical assistants will make their hard lives somewhat easier and speed the time when the sacred mountain is once more a pristine and truly holy site.