The second time it was done only after 10 years, in 2014, at the expense of the National Tourism Administration, the area was cleaned with 9 tons of garbage. And last time in 2020 by Agency of Protected Territories, over 20 tons of waste was transported via helicopters.
Altihat is located relatively down then “Bethlehem Hut” 3,650 masl, it is near “Sabretse” at 3014 masl, but this place is even popular as it is first major check-point for mountaineers and hikers for acclimatization, where many tourists stop and unfortunately leave a large amount of garbage behind.
“We wanted to solve the waste problem, because many people walk trough this direction, especially people from post-soviet countries leave a lot of garbage, and in fact, this area where our “Altihat” is now located was facing an ecological disaster.” – Davit Chichinadze, founder of Altihut.
During 2016-2019 Altihut initiated a large-scale cleaning campaign of the area with systemic approach. More than 4 tons of garbage and human waste was collected and transported form the mountain.
The Altihat team actively follows the quote – “Think globally, act locally”, do not pollute the environment, it will not disappear anytime soon and it is more harmful to human kind than we think. Which is why waste management being one of the main priorities for us, therefore every year hundreds of kilograms of waste are brought from 3014 meters by horse and helicopter, on a systemic mode and not one in a decade.