A buddy of mine who has climbed Everest a few times started a program years ago to bring trash down from the top of Everest. The South Col and other camps at the top of the highest mountain in the world had become virtual trash heaps, places where climbers for decades had left behind the solid detritus of their expeditions. My buddy said that at one point, when you reached the South Col, there were so many discarded oxygen bottles that you had to step around them to get where you were going…namely, the top. And so the program he helped form used Sherpas and funding by climbers to start hauling that stuff down. Little did they know that the trash they carried might someday be considered works of art.
Enter Jeff Clapp, who says he became drawn by the trash climbers leave behind. Clapp says he was inspired by a documentary about Everest’s trash heap (a documentary in which my friend starred), and so he traveled to Nepal and brought a load of discarded oxygen bottles back to turn them into art. He turns them into bowls and bells, after buffing them down to a shiny silver sheen. Prices range from $1,600 to $3,000 for bells, and $500 to $1,500 for the bowls. Come on, isn’t this great? You have to admire guys like this that see opportunity where others see garbage.
