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Cape Verde, Ecuador, Morocco, Nepal, Peru and Sweden. 170 images at the launch – at the moment there is just a selection of the best images in the archive, but new images and series become available every week.

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The gates of Kality prison, where Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson are currently held

ETHIOPIA. Me and my colleague Mattias Lövkvist are currently in Addis Abeba, reporting for several media outlets about the two imprisoned Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. There is a lot of media attending, but international media has not yet shown much interest.

Martin and Johan have prepared themselves for telling their own story in court tomorrow, and everyone is hoping that the court proceedings might come to an end shortly.

If you’re interested in coverage for your media, contact us. We are the only freelance team available in Addis at the moment.

What is truly disturbing, however, is the fact that all newspapers and magazines have kept silent instead of stepping up to defend the two reporters.

The young boys of Swayambhunath monastery are in charge of the Karmapa birthday celebration every year

There are those few times while traveling when an impression instantly sticks; sticks both to mind and on film. I stumbled upon one of them the other night, when I felt good enough to get out for an evening walk with the camera after my week of rehabilitation. I walked up to the Swayambhunath, located high above Kathmandu on a hill, to spend the evening among the monks.

Little did I know that this day, May 6th, was the 28th birthday of the Tibetan highness the Karmapa, Gyalwa Karmapa Tinley. He is widely celebrated throughout centers and monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism worldwide, and especially so in this temple of Kathmandu. The young boys of the monastery were in charge of the celebration, and as tourists waned with twilight they put candles on display all over the Swayambhunath. As the sun completely dissappeared, every single candle was lit. There must have been several thousand candles burning on the stupa (the large white sphere of buddhist temples) and in between the temple buildings.

Just as so many times before, pure chance led me into such an extraordinary setting to take part of. It was a beautiful thing to enjoy, and I hope the pictures can somehow do it justice.

As evening turned to night, a monsoon-like rainfall came out of nowhere and ended the celebration, even though the young monks tried hard to keep the lights going. I guess there’s only so much you can do, as rain hits one of the most exposed temples in the world.

An overview of Everest Base Camp, which during the 2011 April-May climbing season houses hundreds of expeditions aiming for the top of Everest

We have made our way up from Pheriche to Lobuche, and passed through several small villages on the way to base camp. Up here, above 5000m, it is very obvious that waste management is far from people’s mind; be it tourists or be it Nepalese. The extremely barren and cold climate gives away for nothing, and travelers are bound to the thin walls of the lodges for surviving the cold winds. But no matter the altitude or the isolation – you can get most everything here. Water bottles, packaged foods – WiFi. Producing waste is easy.

The climbing season is very much reaching it’s peak as we came trekking, as hundreds of expeditions have set their tents and made camp in Everst Base Camp as early as mid-April. The season has been severely delayed, though, as weather on Mt. Everest and it’s surrounding region have been bringing heavy snowfall throughout the valley.

Climbers and the sherpa cleaning team throwing flour in the air as part of the Puja ceremony

During my stay in base camp the cleaning team, consisting of 22 expert Sherpas, were planning the climb which will eventually bring down several tons (hopefully 8-9 tons) of garbage from the mountain. Several of them did training climbs to camp 1 and 2 to acclimatise, but due the bad weather conditions the actual cleaning could not commence properly. The garbage is covered by snow.

Picture taken during on of the cleaning team’s training sessions

However, being present as they planned the whole thing have given me great insight into the work they are about to do. Interviewing several of them has revealed many different paths leading up to them becoming a part of this project; everyone is proud the be there, in this first endeavour of it’s kind. Pema Diki Sherpa, the only woman Sherpa involved in the cleaning expedition, puts it in a few words:

-”This is the kind of thing you have to be a part of”, she says in an interview. “And I am here to represent all the Nepali women going into the mountaineering business, in helping this project”.

The large cleaning expedition team, with me seen sitting in the middle

All in all I had a great few days in Everest Base Camp, getting to know the team that will serve the project with it’s most difficult and dangerous task – that of cleaning the actual death zone of Mt. Everest. Due the bad weather they’ve been seriously delayed, but in the last reports they are now moving for Camp 2 on the mountain, and will be bringing down garbage in a few weeks time. I am very much looking forward to their own documentation of the garbage collecting on the mountain, which will become a large part of the final documentary put together by me and the project.

Unfortunately I got very sick moving down from base camp, later diagnosed with a very persevering stomach bug that also gave me a fever and cough; a few days ago I was transported down with an evac helicopter. I am now finalising the interviews and additional photography in Kathmandu, and am very much looking forward to the next trip to Nepal in making this project fully documented.

Stay tuned, as more pictures and stories are to follow.

5000m. View over Ama Dablam, as seen from high over Pheriche. Land is getting barren, isolated - and not a place where people care to think about sustainable waste management in between all other high altitude related problems

From Thyangboche we have moved on to Pherice, further up the valley at about 4300m. A small, pass-through town – but also an essential acclimatisation stop. From green valleys we are now heading into more barren land, with rock and snow part of every day.

Bashi Rai, a local porter working for the trekking companies. The porter on the left is carrying a load of 90kg through Pheriche, on his way to Everest Base Camp

We have done interviews with a couple of the sherpa porters, and as we’ve stayed for two extra days have got a good look at all the trekkers passing by. The Himalayan Rescue Association have their main clinic here in Pheriche, and it’s busy everday with porters and tourists in trouble because of the high altitude.

Yaks and their offspring are seen in every village. They represent part of the region’s future problems; with increasing demand on products to be delivered to tourist lodges and other remote traveller areas, yaks are bred more than ever. With their grazing comes a very used-up landscape, that can’t be sustained in the long term

As for the waste management, this is one typical place where waste and garbage disposal doesn’t come in first hand. Lots is used, especially the water bottles that are thrown away en masse – but in a barren and cold place such as this, few think about sustainability. This is where a project like Saving Mount Everest will have a hard challenge, establishing a waste system where people are least of all concerned with what they throw away.

As for our travelling group, we have hit several snags – almost half of the troupe have been evacuated down to Kathmandu by helicopter because of various problems with altitude, and Nepal being a nest of many serious stomach bugs. I was relieved of the latter thanks to the HRA clinic yesterday, who thankfully had antibiotics in stock.

Tomorrow we leave for Lobuche, and up towards the snowy regions of Everest Base Camp.

3800m. Twilight view towards Debuche and Pangboche. Visible in the background is Sagarmatha - Mount Everest - where the godess of long life, Tseringma, watches over the valley.

Nothing but a few houses strewn on a mountain ridge, Thyangboche (Themboche) is but a tiny place which was once just a monastery. But in these days of heavy tourism seasons, almost all trekkers pass through here on their way to Everest Base Camp and on other circuits.

The monastery of Thyangboche.

Being such a remote place, getting waste and garbage handled properly is a great challenge. With tourism demands increasing, several lodges have sprung up around the monastery and it’s few buildings – and what was once a site for religious pilgrimage now hosts several lodges and 100+ trekkers every day.

Sonam Phinjuk, one of the monks living in the monastery | A friendly athmosphere among the monks is just as obvious as always at Buddhist sites

Right now, this site is totally dependent on the monastery to collect, take care of and get rid of the garbage. I have been interviewing some of the younger monks, who are the ones who usually get’s this chore to do in between their 8 hours of prayers every day. “I think tourists are responsible as they travel here, but the nepalese are the problem. What you don’t see is not a problem, they think”, says Pasang Sherpa, one of the young monks.

The younger buddhist monks, outside their living quarters. Sagarmatha visible in the background.

They have a dumping site just like the one in Namche Bazar, just as throughout the region in general. Today this system works, and waste is managed not to be seen by most trekkers. Though as visits increase, the monastery will face an insurmountable task of keeping this sacred site clean.

The monastery of Thyangboche, and it’s monks, leave a lasting impression. We will return here on the way back to get a closer view, and hopefully to get a complete archive footage of the monks currently residing here.

3460m. Namche Bazar, the home of Sherpas and trekkers alike. Khumbila is visible in the background.

We left Kathmandu after some heavy flight delays this Monday, and landed at the small village of Lukla. Being a starting point for almost every trekker spending time in the Himalayas, it is a veritable hub with everything available. It is also here that porters start their long treks through the Khumbu valley and up to various destinations such as Everest Base Camp.

Sherpa porters starting their long trek up through the Khumbu valley, these ones heading for Namche Bazar

Porters and lodge staffmembers playing ping-pong behind the lodge in Lukla

Moving on through Lukla, we have trekked up to Namche Bazar – the next hub on the way. As tourism and trekking business has made the region expand explosively, there are new lodges, restaurant and facilities under construction all along the trail. As springtime is the main season together with late autumn, there’s a very large amount of people moving through the region – which becomes quite obvious. Yaks, porters and local people are many times outnumbered by foreigners crowding the trail.

Trekkers journeying through the lower regions of the Khumbu enjoy all amenities possible, from pizza to WiFi

In Namche we have been doing initial interviews with people who have great insight into the waste problem and it’s development during the last couple of decades. In an interview with the general secretary of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) we have learned the history of environmental control in the region, which has always been totally dependent on private and non-profit efforts. To date, there is no offical governmental force of environmental protection in place here; most of the waste is simply burnt, and the rest is buried out of sight from the tourists in Namche Bazar.

‘Batteries? We crush them, and bury them on the mountain. There is nothing else we can do.’ -Lama Kaji Sherpa, general secretary of the SPCC

Tomorrow we trek further up the valley, towards Thamboche and it’s monastery, on our way up to EBC.

We are having busy days in Kathmandu, and I have been meeting with all the various partners and organizers of the project to get a clear view of what is happening. Organizing a project the scale of Saving Mount Everest is a logistic nightmare wherever you do it; organising it in Nepal – very much worse. It is clear that all partners involved are working extremely hard just to get things running, delayed by bureaucracy.

Wongchu Sherpa from Everest Sumiteers Association, the initiator, and EcoHimal have now set in motion the final arrangements and it seems the start of the actual cleaning of Mount Everest will begin the first days of May. Wongchu is getting a team of Sherpas – the cleaning patrol – up to base camp along with us; people that will surely be featured in my documentary as we trek up the mountain and get perspective on the project. They will lead the initial stage of getting the symbolic act of cleaning “The Mother Godess of the Earth”.

The Vishnumati river, one of many floating through Kathmandu valley

Just landing in Kathmandu gives you a sense of this nation’s waste managing problems, and taking a walk through town leaves you even more sure of it. There is no denying that this country is in dire need of a shape-up in terms of long-term planning for keeping waste in check. As we have been traveling around town to get a sense of Nepal’s capital, the lingering sensation is always one of a damp, sweet smell of garbage and a nose tickling from exhaust fumes.

The holy site of the Boudhanath; a young woman overlooking the same

Nonetheless, there is a change of scenery going on. As the Saving Mount Everest (SME) project is just to be implemented, there is hope of establishing a sustainable model not only for the Khumbu valley and Everest/Sagarmatha region – but for Nepal as a whole. Most important here is that SME has got the support of the Nepalese government, a government who has not devoted themselves to such efforts ever before. If successful, the project will truly spark a trend for developments in the region.