FEATURED MAY 2009 GUEST: Jeff Clapp
Award winning artist, sculptor and creator of Bells From Everest

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." - Jonathan Swift

*An interview with Jeff:
Turning "trash" on Mt. Everest into opportunity and inspiration.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to take oxygen bottles left over from expeditions on Mt. Everest and turn them into bells and ornaments?

A. My formal training in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University introduced me to ice sculpting. Years later I started carving wood so I wouldn't have to watch all my sculptures melt. A friend gave me a CO2 cylinder from his restaurant and I put it on my lathe and shaped it into a bell which was beautiful and had wonderful tone.

In 2002 while watching a National Geographic documentary about Mount Everest and all the trash left by climbers, I realized oxygen cylinders on top of the world had an amazing story to tell. A story of great adventure and historic waste. Those cylinders had helped individuals to reach extreme goals in their lives. Sadly what was left behind symbolized a global environmental problem.

I was consumed by this image and in 2004 I went to Nepal and recovered 132 of those cylinders. I believed this project could be beneficial for everyone involved. The Sherpa would benefit by being paid to recover the cylinders, the mountain would be cleaner, I would have raw material for my art and the wonderful story created about cleaning up the top of the world might inspire others to do think of their own contribution to a cleaner planet.

The Everest Ornament were an after thought created out of necessity. My shop floor started filling up with shavings spinning off my lathe while making the bells. This has been an evolving project with a deepening commitment to never let any useful product go to waste.

Q: How many bottles have you gathered so far and what environmental impact has this made on Everest?

A. I brought home 132 cylinders recovered by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) in the 2002 Everest Clean-Up Campaign. The actual environmental impact from my effort may be small but highly symbolic.

What this story represents and those touched by my effort is still growing. As an artist I saw value in anything "Everest". I wanted to create beautiful bells and inspire others to do their part in helping to clean up the planet. I never envisioned the impact of what I was doing and the interest it would receive.

We created The Everest Ornament as a gift for Mountainfilm in Telluride where I was a guest artist in 2005. The following year we began selling the ornaments at Walt Disney's Expedition Everest. My hope is to show that even a small environmental clean-up can have a far reaching impact.

The American Museum of Natural History, Disney World, LL Bean, Neiman Marcus, Fred Segal, and Walt Disney Concert Hall are all companies which have carried Bells From Everest products.

I have recently been commissioned to create a display for the worlds greatest mountain climber Reinhold Messner to be displayed at the Messner Mountain Museum in Italy and the Nepal Mountaineering Association has accepted my offer of a bell which they will display at their museum in Pokhara, Nepal.

Thousands of people have heard my story. Hopefully others may be inspired to create their own environmental adventure.

Q: Did you have any prior trekking experience in a 3rd world country before heading to Everest Base Camp? What was this experience like for you?

A: I traveled the world when I was very young with my family, but I had never trekked in such remote or exotic places before this trip. I loved my adventures in Nepal. The country is beautiful, the people are warm, and I would recommend Nepal to anyone as a wonderful place to visit.

I started off my adventure alone, but ran into expedition leader Dan Mazur of Summit Climbs who invited me to accompany his expedition. He was leading a climbing expedition to Pomori, a mountain just west of Mt. Everest.

This has been a life changing adventure for me. I would never have called myself an environmentalist before this trip, but I work hard every day to do things to lessen my impact on my own piece of the earth. I truly want to leave a better place for my own daughter to live.

Q: What is in involved in getting the oxygen bottles down from Everest and back to where you live in Maine?

A: I expected to trek into base camp at Mount Everest and pay the Sherpas to collect the cylinders. Fortunately for me the Sherpa had already realized the negative environmental impact of the trash on Everest and had started to clean up the mountain. They set up a bottle redemption several years earlier and had collected hundreds of cylinders and thousands of pounds of trash which were deposited in Katmandu. After trekking two days into the Khumbu Valley I ended up going back to Katmandu, finding the NMA, and buying cylinders picked up in the 2002 Everest Clean-up Campaign. I then shipped the cylinders home to Maine. It cost almost as much to ship the cylinders home as it did to purchase them.

Q: How long does it take to make one bell? How much do they weigh?

A: I spend about a week creating a bell. It all depends on how involved the bell. Some bells have lettering or shapes cut in the sides of the bells which is very time consuming. An oxygen cylinder starts off weighing about 12lb. and a finished bell about 8lb.. It is a labor intensive process working on a lathe.

Q: You have an interest in returning to Nepal and teaching the Sherpa community how to make the bells and create an income for their families. Can you update us on your plans for another trip?

A: I had planned to return to Nepal to teach artists there how to create similar works of art, but we have encountered some problems. I was returning to Nepal last year to recover more cylinders and give them to artists in Katmandu to create bells, but the Chinese in their efforts to summit with the Olympic torch shut down the mountain to climbers on the North side of Mount Everest and restricted summit attempts on the South side until after the 10th of May.

This disrupted the climbing season and my connections at the Nepal Mountaineering Association voiced concerns over filming on the mountain which was also banded by the Chinese. The Tibetans used the Olympics as a platform to voice their fight against the Chinese. I decided not to compete with the Tibetans for press time. Their cause is more important than my efforts to recover a few cylinders.

I received word from Dawa Steven Sherpa, leader of the 2009 Eco Everest Expedition who I met at the American Alpine Club last year that there is less and less waste on the mountain. What trash he was able to recover last year in the 2008 Eco Everest Expedition he gave to the local art college in Katmandu to create "Art from thin air".

It looks like the Nepalese are doing a great job of cleaning up the mountains and using the trash to inspire others to think creatively. I had hoped to teach the Sherpa how to create my bells, but it looks like they have everything well in hand. I have offered to donate one of my bells to the Nepal Mountaineer Association which they have accepted and will be displaying at the NMA Museum in Pokhara as soon as I deliver it.

I still have not completely given up on this idea of teaching local artists to make bells, but it appears there aren't enough old cylinders left to make a sustainable business for them.

Q: With the sensitivity and awareness of "trash on the mountain" rising in the past 10 years, do you think there will ever be a time when you will be without leftovers to make art?

A: I hope so! In my communication with Dawa Steven Sherpa and Ang Tshering Sherpa President of the NMA it sounds like Mount Everest is much cleaner than ever before. They will continue with their usual clean-up efforts and focus on global warming and the problems that accompany that change. There is still years of trash locked inside the Khumbu Glacier which slowly is exposed each year as the glacier melts and recedes. If I run out of materials from Everest I am sure to find something somewhere to continue my work.

Q: How can we learn more about the bells and where to buy one?

A: If you are at Mountainfilm stop by the Schilling Studio Gallery on Pine Street in Telluride. Amy supports my work and does a great job. My work is also available online at www.bellsfromeverest.com/cfm/bells and lists of other galleries is available there.

Q: What does your work mean to you?

A: My work is more symbolic and inspirational than a means to an end. The positive aspects of what I do hopefully will come back to us through individuals who hear my story and use it as motivational tool to do something good for themselves and the planet. It is very rewarding when people come up to me at an event, hear my story, ask a few questions in disbelief, and then proceeds to tell me I'm doing a good thing and keep at it! I attribute our success to the local media and our local community who have been very supportive of our efforts.

Watch this clip on Jeff Clapp and how he created Bells From Everest!

Learn more about Jeff Clapp and Bells From Everest:

Bells from Everest: Inspired by a National Geographic documentary Bells From Everest were conceived as a way to reuse discarded oxygen cylinders from Everest. The bells still carry the manufacturers serial numbers and fill dates and are a unique way to share in the Everest adventure. Each is crafted on a lathe with fine detail work to transform the weathered cylinder into desirable art with a deep resounding tone.

The Everest Ornament: The Everest Ornament is literally a spin-off from creating the bells and bowls. Using the last remaining tinsel-like strands of metal which stream of the lathe, these ornaments are an emblem of never letting anything useful go to waste. They are packaged in 100% recycled paper with attached gift card and a flyer which tells their story. The Everest Ornament is a great way to share a piece of the Everest adventure while actively helping to clean-up the top of the world.

About Bells from Everest: Until recently oxygen cylinders were carried into the Himalayas (and elsewhere) and, when empty, simply abandoned en route. Today, thanks to Bells From Everest, many other organizations, and growing environmental awareness worldwide, they are being cleared from the mountains. Bells from Everest collected their first batch of 132 cylinders in Nepal in 2004 and shipped them back home to Maine, where I cut and turn virtually every scrap into the unique sculptures and ornaments you see here.

About Jeff Clapp: Jeff had a life-changing experience while watching a documentary about the piles of oxygen cylinders and other debris left on Mount Everest over the past 50 years. Jeff was shocked and delighted by what he had just seen - shocked by the thought of people trashing such a gorgeous place and delighted because suddenly he realized he had a use for the discarded oxygen cylinders: To do something that had never been done before. Jeff had traveled in third world countries for years and learned to never throw anything away.

Jeff realize that the cylinders would still be there somewhere in Nepal built into a wall as cinder blocks or piled in a corner, waiting for someone to come and whisk them away.

Today, Jeff is a metal turner and sculptor. He creates bells, bowls and other inspirational sculptures from the oxygen cylinders of Mount Everest, creating beautiful artwork out of materials that have literally come from the top of the world.

In addition to creating inspirational artwork, Jeff is doing so much more, he is contributing to the world clean-up in a small but symbolically significant way.

copyright: Jeff Clapp 2009