STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS – STORY : New Zealand’s leading news and information website

Sounds like another way to join the “Mile High Club” to me.

File this one under… weird ways to get grant money.

A Victoria University professor wants randy mountaineers to stop having sex at Mount Everest’s base camp.

Professor Ralph Pettman is starting an international protest movement to raise awareness of the cultural insensitivity of amorous mountain tourists.

Base camp sex has long upset Sherpas, for whom the mountain is a sacred place.

When eight people were killed in an Everest blizzard in 1996, Sherpas claimed the sexual activities of a New York socialite before the climb had brought bad luck to the climbers.

“For them, it’s a very sacred mountain, but people treat it in unsacred ways,” Pettman said.

The professor of international relations has received $2000 in funding from Victoria University to create a website to unite international support.