Mount Everest: What Goes Up Should Come Down Unit Driving Question: How can we enjoy and explore unique natural areas while still protecting our environment?

The Costs of the Climb Lesson Driving Question: What are the impacts of the climb?

• Begin by asking students: If you were interested in summiting Mount Everest or one of the other Seven Summits, how would you get to the base of the mountain today? (Possible answers: drive, fly, or a combination of both).
• Then ask: How would people 100 years ago have gotten there? 200 years ago? (Possible answers: boats, horses, carriages, walking).
• Then ask: What causes the change in how people solve problems like traveling from one location to another? [Possible answers: people start wondering how to make things easier (asking questions), which leads to improvements in technology (seeking and developing solutions)].
• Then ask students: How might these changes be both positive and negative? (Possible answers for positive changes: The challenge becomes easier, things take less time, travel time is shorter so the time one gets to be participating in the actual activity might increase. As the demand to go to a destination increases, the amount of money the local economy may receive from tourism increases—supply/demand. Locals are receiving better training and are, therefore, able to provide greater services for visitors. Infrastructure and communications are improving as a result of the economy growing stronger. Possible answers for negative changes: The destination becomes more populated, air pollution may increase, more people in a location produces more waste in a location, and as demand to go to a destination increases, the cost may increase—supply/demand. There is a risk of cultural dissolution with greater economic forces driving inhabitants to become educated abroad, move outside for work, lose facility with local languages and dialects.)
• Conclude the discussion by drawing connections between the activity and culminating unit project. Talk about the negative impacts that have occurred because of the increase in the number of climbers on the mountain and connect that to their project goals of controlling for these impacts. Share with students that many in the climbing community and around the world are already engaged in this work.

• Have students watch the Replicating 1920s Gear video (1:30). After watching the video, have students view the Everest Climbing Gear: Then and Now slideshow of differences in gear from the past to the present. Guide students to listen and look for changes to equipment over time. Distribute a copy of Everest Gear: Past and Present and have students record their findings.                    
• Ask students: Based on this information, raise your hand if you think climbing Everest today is safer than it was in 1920. Why or why not?    

• Display this quote from Traffic Jams are Just One of the Problems Facing Climbers on Everest: “I cannot believe what I saw up there. Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at Camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night.”—Elia Saikaly, Cinematographer

• This is a quote from someone’s experience on Mount Everest.  Ask students: In what year do you think this quote was said?  Take student guesses and then reveal that the quote is from 2019.
• Informally survey students to determine if they were surprised or not, then ask: Why were you surprised that this quote was from 2019? Why not?

• Have students read the background article for May 10, 1996 CE: Disaster on Everest while displaying this image to the whole class. After students have finished reading, ask: How has climbing Everest evolved due to popularity according to this text? Record student responses on a visible surface such as a whiteboard or chart paper.
• Then, have students independently read the article from 2019, Traffic Jams are Just One of the Problems Facing Climbers on Everest. Lead a whole-class discussion about what this article says about how change has impacted the experience of summiting Mount Everest. Record additional changes the students identified on the running list started above.

• Have students read the article The Khumbu Climbing Center: In the Footsteps of Hillary and Norgay.
• After reading the article, have students identify changes mentioned in this article that have impacted climbing Everest, including education and governmental regulations and add these new ideas to the running list started in Step 3.

• In small groups, have students refer to their Everest Gear: Past and Present worksheet and the class list of how climbing Everest has evolved started in Step 3 to reflect on both the positive and negative effects on Mount Everest. Have students evaluate the changes to determine which has had the biggest positive and negative effect on Everest and then have one representative from each group share with the whole class.
• Have students add the following three events covered in this activity to their History of Mountaineering Timeline:

• May 10, 1996 disaster on Mount Everest
• Creation of the Khumbu Climbing Center
• National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Expedition to Mount Everest in 2019

• Have students record new learning from this activity on their Mount Everest: Know and Need to Know Chart.

Mount Everest: What Goes Up Should Come Down Unit Driving Question: How can we enjoy and explore unique natural areas while still protecting our environment?

The Costs of the Climb Lesson Driving Question: What are the impacts of the climb?

• Distribute to students this Everest infographic created using data from 1900 to 2016. Ask students: Based on our new, inclusive definition of costs, what do you notice on this infographic that is an example of a cost?

• Conduct another Think, Pair, Share where students discuss what they notice on the infographic that would be a cost. Have students share their partner’s observation, and record them on the whiteboard or chart paper.

• Distribute the Cost of the Climb handout to each student. Ask: What categories of costs can you identify? Which observation would go in that category?

• Conduct a class discussion until students have identified examples from each category on the Cost of the Climb worksheet: physical or human body, financial or money, material or supplies, environmental, and personnel or workers.
• Demonstrate adding one of these student-identified costs to the appropriate area of the Cost of the Climb worksheet. For example, hired workers would go under personnel; death, altitude sickness, or frostbite would fall under physical costs. 
• Show students an image of the climber known as green boots. Share with students that green boots died on Everest in 1996, but his body is still there.
• Ask: Why is this climber's body still on the mountain? What else is left with him? (Answers may include oxygen tank, climbing pack.)

• Have students read two or more of the following articles and use what they discover in each reading to complete their Cost of the Climb worksheet.            

1. The Everest Moral Dilemma
2. Nepal Slashes Everest Fees; Will Lower Costs Increase Crowds of Climbers?
3. Alpine Institute’s Everest Equipment List-2018
4. Sherpas: The Invisible Men of Everest
5. NPR: The Science Behind the Super Abilities of Sherpas
6. Leave No Trace: Plan Ahead and Prepare in Mountaineering

• Divide students into groups of three to four. Have students share with their group members, who read different articles in Step 4, what they learned about the costs of summiting Everest. Have students record new ideas from their group’s discussion to their Cost of the Climb worksheet.
• Conduct a class discussion for students to share their responses to the final question on the Cost of the Climb worksheet. Ask: What are the major impacts of climbing Mount Everest on the mountaineers? What about on the mountain?
• Conclude the discussion with: The influential mountaineer Reinhold Messner is rumored to have said, “Everyone knows what climbing mount Everest costs; but only a few know what it is worth.” What do you think? 

Mount Everest: What Goes Up Should Come Down Unit Driving Question: How can we enjoy and explore unique natural areas while still protecting our environment?

The Costs of the Climb Lesson Driving Question: What are the impacts of the climb?

• Show students a piece of trash and ask: What do we do with trash when we find it in our classroom? What happens to that trash after we put it in a trash can?
• Ask: What do you think happens to trash on Everest? 
• Then, as a class, watch The human impact on Everest from CNN.
• Have students read the article Tons of Trash Removed from Everest as Cleanup Unearths Bodies. 
• After reading, ask students: What confirmed, challenged, or furthered your thinking? What surprised you most?
• Show students this photo from a May 8, 2017, Everest cleanup campaign. Ask: 
• What would encourage and/or prohibit you from participating in something like this? (Possible student answers: There is a sense of pride in participating in service work, such as a cleanup campaign. The work is physically demanding, and I don’t want to hurt myself cleaning up after others.)
• Why is it important to tourism that cleanup campaigns like this exist? (Possible student answers: Tourists, who are important to the economy, are not going to want to visit a natural area if it is completely littered with trash because it takes away from the natural beauty.)
• How might cleanup campaigns like this deter mountaineers from packing their own waste out? (Possible student answers: People may feel that if they are paying for services such as a Sherpa guide, then it is not their responsibility to clean up after themselves.)
• Why is it hard for mountain climbers to clean up after themselves? (Possible student answers: Climbers need to keep their packs light, especially as they get up into higher altitudes.)

• Use a digital survey, polling tool, or a simple thumbs up/thumbs down to survey the class on the following questions:

• Is it possible for a mountaineer to summit Everest without leaving waste behind?
• Should Sherpas and other mountain guides be responsible for bringing waste down the mountain?
• Is it fair to leave behind the bodies of those who die trying to summit Everest?
• Whose responsibility is it to prevent pollution from organized expeditions? 

• Record the responses so they can be referenced during Step 4.

• Distribute the Mount Everest’s Problems and Proposed Solutions worksheet to students. Inform students that ideas collected on this worksheet may benefit them during the creation of their culminating project as the solutions they identify will be a big part of the foundation of the Everest Bill of Rights.
• Assign students to one of the six articles to read and become an expert. As they read, have students record their learning on the Mount Everest’s Problems and Proposed Solutions worksheet.

1. Vanity, Pollution, and Death on Mt. Everest
2. Maxed Out on Everest
3. The Mission to Cleanup Mount Everest
4. Environmental Issues on Mount Everest
5. Healing the Human Impact on Everest
6. Saving Mount Everest Campaign 

• Next, have students form a jigsaw group with students who have read the other five articles. Have students share the main problems and/or solutions discussed in their article with their group and record the rest of the group’s findings on their own Mount Everest’s Problems and Proposed Solutions worksheet.
• Then have students add new, relevant information to the graphic organizer Cost of the Climb worksheet that was started in the Summiting Everest Today activity.  

• Possible additions students may have include: cleanup costs to pay Sherpas who are bringing trash down the mountain, extra fees charged for cleanup that are added on to the mountaineering fees, and emotional costs for the families of those who die on the mountain.

• Is it possible for a mountaineer to summit Everest without leaving waste behind?
• Should Sherpas and other mountain guides be responsible for bringing waste down the mountain?
• Is it fair to leave behind the bodies of those who die trying to summit Everest?
• Whose responsibility is it to prevent pollution from organized expeditions?

• Remind students their final product will be to create an Everest Bil of Rights as a class. 
• Share with students one example of a right (for example, you have the right to remain silent). Then ask students to brainstorm in their groups what kinds of rights would be necessary to implement the solution they identified.
• Students write down their right and submit it as an exit ticket.