Birthdays are a time for feeling on top of the world and having your head-in-the-clouds is part of the joy of youth. And for most people it is unlikely to be literally true.

But Lu Yan is not most people. She celebrated her 20th birthday in 1997 on top of a mountain, one of the highest in fact of the magnificent Kunlun Range in Qinghai Province.

Time and experience have not dampened her adventurous spirit and eight years on found her on the world's highest peak, Mount Qomolangma.

But it was not just the thrill of mountain climbing that brought Lu, now a Beijing-based businesswoman, back to the wild mountains. Along with a group of other environmental activists, she was on a clean-up mission collecting rubbish from this eco-fragile region.

A member of the "2005 Great Environmental Action at the Third Pole of the Earth," Lu and

Organized by the Sports Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region and a Beijing-based sports and culture company, the campaign, which began in 2004 and ends to coincide with Beijing's "Green Olympics" in 2008, involves an annual clean-up of the area two thirds or so of the way up Qomolangma, between 5,120 and 6,500 meters above the sea level.

Association reached the 6,178-metre summit of Mount Yuzhu.

A year later, she tried the slightly higher Mount Cho Oyu in Tibet, a tougher climb given it is 8,021 meters above sea level, making it the sixth highest peak in the Himalayas.

Yet her real dream was the 8,848-metre Qomolangma, the third pole of the Earth.

The moment came around sooner than she ever imagined and on May 29, she found herself at the 5,800-meter transition camp.

A few months before, in September 2004, Tibetan mountaineers and 24 volunteers removed eight tons of rubbish in the first stage of the project.

To coincide with World Environment Day on June 5, Lu along with 34 other volunteers handed over more than 400 50-60 liter bags of garbage to the local government.

The China Tibetan Mountaineering Team also did their invaluable bit for the great clean-up effort. They returned from their 8,000-metre camp on Qomolangma, after completing a major survey of the peak last month.

As simple as it sounds, the actual task of physically collecting rubbish at such altitudes and in the thin air of Tibet proved a tough one. "We had to rest and take a breath after slowly bending down and picking up even a little tin can," explained Lu, back at base camp.

Most of the volunteers, who were from different media and enterprises, echoed her words after the 5,120-metre base camp clear-up on May 28.

But despite their efforts, all knew a lot of rubbish remained higher up the mountain. "We know there is still a lot of waste in the area above that altitude. Mostly oxygen boxes and plastic products, which don't biodegrade," she added.

Lu and four other volunteers in Team A were tasked with collecting rubbish at between 5,120 and 5,800 meters.

Eight of the team of clean-up volunteers, skilled amateur mountain climbers, including Lu, were selected to go to high elevations. Team B comprised three climbers, Burkhard Felber from Austria, Zou Kai from Guangdong and Xu Jin from Beijing, accompanied by two members from the Tibetan Mountaineering Team. Their clean-up beat was at 6,500 meters above sea level.

Recalling their departure from a sun-washed base camp, Lu said: "We set out with great self-confidence, well equipped with medicines, climbing sticks and several yaks. Two Tibetans from the local mountaineering team accompanied us to offer their help."

The volunteers working on the lower flanks hung beautiful Chinese knots and Tibetan decorations around Lu's neck and from her bag, for good luck.

As they moved higher and higher, Lu was hit by altitude sickness and her head started to ache terribly. Every 10 steps she had to stop and breathe hard.

Halfway, the group had to take off their climbing backpacks and load them onto yaks, as a way of conserving their sapping strength.

It took them at least six hours to reach the transition camp at 4 pm.

Exhausted, they were welcomed by camping Tibetan mountaineers, and served with hot buttered tea and egg fried rice. "Not until then did I have time to sit down and appreciate the unforgettable scene of the glaciers. Our yaks stood impassively and Qomolangma turned gold as the sun cast its last glow on it," said Lu Wei, another volunteer from the northeast coastal city of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

"All the suffering was worth it," he said.

Altitude sickness - a condition that strikes victims indiscriminately - was still taking its toll on Lu Yan. Her headache worsened, especially with the effort of putting up their tents and a sleepless night awaited her.

"I couldn't fall asleep. My head kept hurting and lying on crushed stones was really uncomfortable. Getting up was not an option as it was freezing cold outside my sleeping bag," she later recalled.

Team A started with a clean-up around the transition camp and then began their descent, picking up rubbish as they went and following the path of yak droppings, the mountain's natural roadsigns.

Team B, meanwhile, set off for the higher advanced base camp.

At one point Team A lost the path and found themselves in a river valley and had to cross the narrow, but swift running water to get back on the right track.

They tossed all their climbing equipment and rubbish sacks across to the opposite bank and Lu's male companions made it across by jumping from stone to stone protruding out of the water, leaving her to follow last.

"They feared that I might fall into the ice-cold river, I could tell from their expressions. For I was the youngest and skinny. But they reached out their hands and encouraged me and I made it," she said.

Their rubbish sacks were soon full of tin cans, metal oxygen boxes, plastic products and even wine bottles.

"The work made me even weaker. Just when I was about to faint, Lu Wei took out an apple from his pocket. It was the most delicious taste in the world!" she laughed.

It gave her just that extra she needed to keep going, and eventually the team made it back to base camp.

Team B, meanwhile, had reached the advanced base camp.

"It appeared even larger than I had expected. Climbers from around the world were there and had erected all kinds of tents in the area between 6,300 and 6,600 meters. A huge football tent impressed me most," said Zou Kai.

The next day Team B, with the help of their Tibetan companions, set about collecting rubbish. Their actions inspired some other climbers from a variety of nations to join in.

Felber was struck by the amount of discarded rubbish on Qomolangma. The mountains - part of the Alps - in his homeland are garbage free because climbers take their waste away with them.

When Lu Wei was preparing to leave on the clean-up expedition, his 8-year-old daughter asked why he was going to collect trash from the mountains.

"I replied, 'if you are able to climb Qomolangma when you grow up, which would you wish to see, another big dumping ground, or a holy and pure mountain'?" said Lu.

People, especially those who know little about nature and outdoor sports, often ask Lu why people involve themselves in environmental protection in the wild, sometimes at the risk of their lives.

The more you have intimate contact with nature, the more you love it and want to protect it from any potentially destructive human activities, he explained.

(China Daily June 23, 2005)