DJI says its heavy-lift FlyCart 100 drone moved 10,073 kilograms of material between Everest Base Camp and Camp 1 during the 2026 spring climbing season, hauling climbing supplies uphill and waste back down. According to TechRadar, the flights were run in partnership with Nepalese drone outfit Airlift on the mountain's south side.
The headline figure: 7,215kg of supplies one way, 2,858kg of waste the other. Going forward, DJI expects the drone to remove roughly 10,000kg of rubbish per season from higher camps that previously could not be cleaned at all.
Key facts
- 10,073kg of total payload moved between Base Camp and Camp 1 in 2026.
- 7,215kg of climbing supplies up; 2,858kg of waste down.
- FlyCart 100 covers the route in about 8 minutes versus 6 to 8 hours on foot.
- A DJI Matrice 4E mapped 3km² of the Khumbu Icefall in 3.5 hours.
- A DJI EV50 eVTOL reached 8,861m carrying atmospheric sensors, higher than the summit.
- Effort ties into Nepal's "Zero Waste Initiative 2027" and a 5,000-cylinder seasonal oxygen target.
Why the time saving matters
The Khumbu Icefall is widely treated as the most dangerous section of the standard south-side route, a shifting maze of ice towers and crevasses. A Sherpa's round trip from Base Camp to Camp 1 can take six to eight hours on foot. The FlyCart 100 covers the same ground in about eight minutes. That gap matters when you multiply it across thousands of loads per season.
DJI's tests show the drone carrying up to 47kg at altitudes above 6,300m, in temperatures from -15°C to 5°C. The sea-level payload ceiling is 100kg, so the mountain costs the aircraft more than half its lift. Most consumer drones would not fly in those conditions, and most helicopters would not either.
How the cleanup stacks up
Average Everest climbers leave behind about 8kg of rubbish per expedition, per National Geographic figures cited by TechRadar, and more than 600 people attempt the summit each season, typically with a local Sherpa assigned to each climber. The numbers add up fast. The wider problem is historic: literal tons of old equipment sit buried in the glaciers, and a warming climate is exposing more of it every year.
DJI is not new to the mountain. In 2022 a Mavic 3 became the first drone to film from the 8,848.86m summit. In 2024 the FlyCart 30 ran the first drone delivery tests there. This year the Matrice 4E mapped the icefall at centimetre resolution, and the EV50 reached 8,861m, slightly above the summit, while carrying ozone sensors for atmospheric research.
Why this matters for resellers and hosts
None of this is web hosting, but the operational pattern is familiar. A delivery or mapping job that used to require a person on the ground becomes a software-defined service run from a tablet. The cost per kilogram falls, the risk falls faster, and the data side product (centimetre icefall maps, ozone readings) is more valuable than the cargo itself. For agencies selling white-label drone or GIS services, the model is the same one resellers already use: package the platform, bill per job, keep the margin.
Say you run a small mapping shop. You buy a Matrice 4E, wrap it with your own branding, and sell glacier or construction-site surveys to local councils. The drone is the platform; your value is the data pipeline, the report, and the client relationship. That is the same shape as a reseller hosting plan, just with rotors.
What to watch next
Two things. First, whether Nepal formalises drone access rules for the Khumbu before the 2027 season, because regulators tend to follow the first serious operator. Second, whether DJI publishes the EV50's full flight data, since "higher than the summit" is a marketing line until the telemetry is public. Either development will shape how fast this model spreads to other crowded peaks.
Bottom line
DJI's drones will not unclog Everest's crowds or dig out the buried debris, but they can shrink the human workload on the most dangerous stretch of the route and clean higher camps that have been off-limits until now. That trade-off, less human risk for the same lift, is the part worth tracking.
Key takeaways
- The FlyCart 100 trimmed an 8-hour Sherpa trek to an 8-minute drone flight.
- 10,073kg shifted in one season; 10,000kg-per-season target for higher camps going forward.
- Mapping and atmospheric drones are now part of the same operational playbook.
- The reseller pattern is familiar: platform in, branding on, value-add services out.
Frequently asked questions
Which DJI drone carried the rubbish?
The DJI FlyCart 100, a heavy-lift delivery drone, in partnership with Nepalese firm Airlift.
How much waste did the drone move?
2,858kg of waste down from Camp 1, with 7,215kg of supplies moved uphill, totalling 10,073kg for the 2026 season.
How high did the EV50 fly?
It reached 8,861m, slightly above Everest's 8,848.86m summit, while carrying atmospheric sensors.
Is this connected to Nepal's cleanup plan?
Yes. DJI's 2026 flights are tied to the Nepal Mountain Association's Zero Waste 2027 push, which also aims to shift roughly 5,000 oxygen bottles each season between the lower camps.