Ethical peak-bagging

Cho Oyu,  Nuptse,  Everest, and  Lhotse,  from Mera Peak - photo Graham Illing

(This picture file is licensed under the Creative Commons License)

BwB Ethical and Environmental Advice

Gathered together under the topics below are some suggestions on how to engage in international peak-bagging in a manner that provides more positive outcomes for you, other people, wildlife and the planet.

Travel

• Consider rationing the number of high-prominence hills and mountains you aim to summit each year.  As BwB also offers Progress Registers and Halls of Fame in the lower prominence categories, you might wish to spend longer in a particular vicinity.  Aim not just for an ascent and descent up the high-prominence peak, but explore the subsidiary peaks in a massif.

• Use an app or computer software (such as https://www.carbonfootprint.com/) to estimate what CO2 etc. emissions your bagging activities released last year.  Then deduct, say, 10%.  Aim to stay within your reduced quota in the next year, factoring in your ‘carbon foot-print’ into your bagging plans, so you consider alternative ways of achieving your objectives.  Try to reduce your quota each year thereafter.

• Severely restrict, or do not use, long-haul flights in particular, and aim to maximise your peak-bagging activity at your destination so as to restrict future flights to the same place.  Stay longer.  Stay local.

• Use public transport to achieve your bagging plans where possible.

• In North America and Europe, restrict the states and countries you hike/climb in to the ones which have good public transport infrastructures.

• If you use your own or a hire car, drive economically, using all the eco features the car has to offer.

• Buy, or hire, an electric, or hybrid, car.

• Use a bicycle or e-bike when possible.

• Contribute to NGOs and charities that have aims on environmental protection and operate responsible and effective carbon-offset schemes.  For example, in the UK, the charity Trees for Life (https://treesforlife.org.uk/), or Clear (https://clear.eco/about-clear/).

• Do linear back-packing or hut-to-hut hikes between public transport hubs, rather than loop walks from your car at the trail-head.

• Use social media, such as the BwB Forum, to share your hiking plans and team up with others to facilitate car-sharing.

• BwB or Europeaklist might be able to host a similar page (in English) as found on the much used French mountain website CamptoCamp – see at https://www.camptocamp.org/articles/108427/fr/mobilite-douce-les-ressources-du-net

Money, and other resources

• Spend your money in the local vicinity on accommodation, food supplies etc, so you bring economic benefit to the area.

• Engage the services of local guides rather than foreign nationals.

• Factor in time to contribute your knowledge, skills and labour to local communities in under-developed areas you visit.  You might, for example, combine peak-bagging with trail repairs, or join in a charity project providing clean water facilities in the area you have targeted for your peak-bagging. 

On your hike

• If you wild-camp, take very great care with cooking gear so as to avoid creating wild fires.  If you smoke, take similar care.

• Camp responsibly on the principle of ‘leave no trace’.

• Leave no rubbish but carry it out for safe environmental disposal. 

• Carry a bag to pick up other people’s rubbish.

• Urinate and defecate on your hike under best practice (see, for example, https://gizmodo.com/how-to-poop-in-the-woods-1599311733), or carry out your waste products to the trail-head for safe disposal.

• Report natural and man-made environmental damage you encounter on your hike to the relevant authorities.

Flora and Fauna

• Many wildlife charities and NGOs offer apps to record wildlife encounters (see, for example, iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/home).  Use these to record sightings of birds, mammals, reptiles, butterflies, plants etc. on your hike, so as to build up scientific information and statistical data.  Add a knowledge of mountain wildlife and flora to your hiking skills, so that you can report your observations accurately to these wildlife and botanical conservation charities, and become their ambassadors on the ground.

• Avoid visiting places at times when wildlife is particularly under pressure, such as nesting season, and be especially considerate at all times in bio-diversity areas.

'Soft Mobility'

See the various hyperlinks on the France page at: https://sites.google.com/site/europeaklist/Home/france for advice on 'soft mobility' when hiking the mountains of France.  

These 'soft mobility principles are, of course, of wider application than just for hiking in France.