leavenotracenz

Rhys Darby is a funny man. Very funny.
Unfortunately he almost makes some funny decisions.  As in stupid and self-centred funny.
He’s just announced that he’s heading to Everest Base Camp in late 2014 with a group of other comedians to perform a live stage show to raise money for Save The Children’s Stand Up On Everest project.
His announcement was made just weeks before I’m due to leave for a 15-day trek that culminates in a visit to Everest Base Camp.  My first thought was, ‘oh no, I hope that’s not while we’re going to be there’.
What’s this go to do with the Leave No Trace movement?  Well, one of the seven LNT principles is ‘Be Considerate of Others’.
Why do most people want to trek to EBC?  If they are like me, it will be to experience first-hand the grandeur and beauty of the Himalaya, to test yourself physically and mentally, and to revel in the huge openness and silent majesty of the region.
Our LNT New Zealand website asks people to “Consider others, and what they might be trying to get out of their outdoor experience”.
Sadly Rhys, his fellow comedians and Save The Children have done none of this.  Anyone else unlucky enough to be at Base Camp at the same time, probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience that they have trained and saved diligently for, will not have the experience they probably envisaged.
The irony is almost everyone supports Save The Children. And their latest global fundraising effort would be supported wherever they chose to stage their comedy event.
Which makes taking it to Everest a needless, pointless exercise.  Forget altitude sickness. If only there was a prescription medicine for attitude sickness.

Blog contributed by Mark Russell, chair of Leave No Trace New Zealand