Nepalese soldiers have retrieved four bodies and a skeleton from Mount Everest and the neighbouring peaks of Lhotse and Nuptse during a cleaning operation.

According to the army, the recruits have collected 11 tons of rubbish since April.

Mount Everest, at 8,849 metres, is the highest mountain in the world.

It has also gained the sad notoriety of being the world’s highest rubbish dump.

Tonnes of broken tents, clothing, food packaging, cookers, empty water bottles, beer cans, and oxygen bottles lie there, left behind by thousands of adventurers.

There is also a lot of human waste and dozens of corpses, some of which mountaineers even use as trail markers.

When people die on the mountain, they are often left behind.

This is because recovering a frozen corpse is difficult and expensive.

According to U.S. mountaineer and blogger Alan Arnette, it costs between $32,000 and $64,500.

In most cases, a team of six to 10 experienced Sherpas with oxygen cylinders were deployed and a helicopter flew the body off the mountain.

However, some families also left their deceased loved ones there because they loved the mountain.

(dpa/NAN)