Everest Climbers Pulled Down Their Pants for Science and Helped Reveal the Limits of the Human Body

Many picture Everest as the last untouched wilderness, yet snow from near the summit contained microplastics — fibres likely linked to climbers’ clothing and equipment — at the highest altitude they had ever been found on land.

There is a version of Everest most of us carry around in our heads: a clean white pyramid, brutally remote, rising beyond the reach of ordinary human pollution. Snow collected only a few hundred metres below the summit, however, complicates that picture. When researchers analysed it, they found microscopic plastic fibres, including materials commonly used in outdoor clothing, tents and climbing equipment. A quick note before going further: I am …

Everest Climbers Pulled Down Their Pants for Science and Helped Reveal the Limits of the Human Body

Scientists drew blood from climbers near Everest’s summit and found oxygen levels that should have been lethal.