Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, may soon get a ladder to decrease congestion at the Hillary Step.

Nearly 60 years after Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest, plans have been proposed to install a ladder at the treacherous Hillary Step.

The Hillary Step is the final obstacle for climbers, and as more people attempt the climb, the step is becoming crowded. Only one person can attempt the step at a time, resulting in delays.

This year alone, 520 climbers have scaled Mount Everest. On May 19, 150 climbed the last 3,000 feet of the peak within hours of each other, resulting in delays as climbers lined up to ascend or descend strategic sections, the Guardian reported.

"We are now discussing putting a ladder on the Hillary Step but it is obviously controversial," said Dawa Steven Sherpa, a senior member of the Expedition Operator's Association in Nepal to the Guardian.

"Most of the traffic jams are at the Hillary Step because only one person can go up or down. If you have people waiting two, three or even four hours, that means lots of exposure [to risk]," Sherpa said.

Despite concern that a ladder would decrease the integrity and difficulty of climbing Everest, Dawa Steven Sherpa claims that a ladder would do no such thing.

"To make the climbing easier, that would be wrong. But this is a safety feature," he added.

Frits Vrijlandt, president of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, as expressed support for the proposal. He said that the ladder could be used to descend Everest, so it would not make the climb any easier.

"It's for the way down, so it won't change the climb," Vrijlandt told the Guardian.

Still, for tired mountaineers, the draw of the ladder's aid in scaling the peak would be hard to resist.

However helpful the ladder might become, not all are happy about it.

"The mountain has become a commodity, to be bought and sold like any other," said Stephen Venables, the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen.

Another concern is that more people will flock to Everest as it becomes 'easier' to climb, bringing more garbage to the already polluted peak.

A joint army team of India and Nepal recently launched an initiative to clean up the slopes. Thus far, they have collected over 4000 kg (8819 lbs.) of trash that was littering the surface of Everest, according to the Press Trust of India.

The cleanup team collected waste that included various goods "used and discarded by mountaineers in the course of their Everest expeditions," the Statesman reported.

The initiative is part of the Joint Sagarmatha Mountaineering and Cleanliness Campaign 2013, and has spent nearly two months collecting waste at Everest's base camps, according to the Himalayan Times.

Allegedly, 2250 kg (4960 lbs.) of bio-hazardous waste was collected, which will be destroyed with the less toxic waste products without affecting the environment.

As more climbers attempt to scale Everest, more of these waste-collection missions will be needed to maintain the pristine conditions of the world's highest peak.