China to deploy theft patrol on Everest

A Chinese mountaineering official will have the unenviable task of trying to prevent robberies on the roof of the world after a spate of equipment thefts, officials said on Wednesday.

The official will be deployed at a breathtaking altitude of 6 600m after a record season this year saw 520 people reaching Mount Everest's 8 848m summit but also complaints of stealing.

"Expedition activities have been going on for some years and we want to impose stricter management ... to prevent these kinds of things from happening," said an official at the China Tibet Mountaineering Association surnamed Zhang.

Zhang sought to play down the extent of the thefts, saying there were many occasions where people had only "mistakenly taken other people's properties".

"[But] we have to make our best efforts to go up there to investigate."

During this year's climbing season, expedition teams complained about losing equipment such as oxygen bottles, food and cooking gas, with high-climbing thieves blamed.

More at: Mail & Guardian Online

This caught my eye because one of Great Grandfathers (maternal) was a police captain in the Drakensburg Mountains here. OK so he was mostly into preventing stock theft I'm told I take after him in many respects and checking out and going to where his homestead was led to me getting into backpacking and then later rock climbing.

It's a total shame that folk stoop to theft on Everest and that life support equipment is stolen. I beleive it's a total garbage pit up there too with garbage left to the elements...in those conditions of cold not much rots or decomposes. Many of those making an ascent do so purely to be able to claim they have with little regard for conservation.

OK, who are these thieves? I mean seriously, LOL. Can't be too many people in the suspect column.