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Mt. Everest's Beauty Defaced by Garbage

On 29 May 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Years later Hillary recalled the mountain's "indescribable beauty." He said the great peaks were "glowing like balls of fire against the background of a dark velvet sky." Ten years later, Jim Whittaker, accompanied by Sherpa Nawang Gombu, became the first American to reach summit. Years later he said, "When you come off the mountain and see the first blade of grass, then go lower and see a flower … you feel so humble and grateful to be alive. We're so [darn] lucky to be able to share the magic of this planet, and you realize that when you come off Everest."

Both Hillary and Whitaker were entranced by the beauty of Mount Everest, but today the mountain has been sullied by greed, selfish ambition, and pollution. An article in National Geographic reports:

Unlike in 1963, when only six people reached the top, in the spring of 2012 more than 500 mobbed the summit … many without basic climbing skills. Having paid $30,000 to $120,000 to be on the mountain, too many [naively] expect to reach the summit … The two standard routes … are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps.

One veteran climber said, "Along with that rush of visitors, has come a new breed of parasitic and predatory adventurer." It's gotten so bad that some expeditions hire Sherpas to stand guard against burglars. And the trash keeps piling up as expedition teams leave behind a string of garbage from base camp to the summit. Although there have been some attempts to clean up the trash, because Everest is so cold and icy, the waste that's left there, stays there.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) The Fall; Sin—This illustration shows how human sin tarnishes and sullies the beauty of God's good world. (2) Selfish ambition—Everyone wants to get to the top of their world, but there are always consequences to our selfish ambition.

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