Kathmandu, March 19 – The government today amended the mountaineering regulation allowing all climbers who had abandoned their expeditions to Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Nuptse last spring to use their individual permits till 2019.
A meeting of the council of ministers held at the prime minister’s residence this afternoon endorsed a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation seeking the fourth amendment to mountaineering regulation to allow 442 climbers to utilize their individual permits till 2019 from the same company that they were associated with last year.
As many as 325 climbers had planned to scale Mt. Everest, 88 Mt. Lhotse and 47 Mt. Nuptse last year but had to give up their bid after an avalanche struck the icy slope near Camp I, killing 16 mountaineering support staff. They can now come in any spring season till 2019 to climb the mountains by using their permits, said Tulsi Gautam, Director General at the Department of Tourism, conforming the decision.
“The climbers should pay an additional $ 1,000 for Mt. Everest to company with revised royalty structure of $ 11,000 per person to utilize their past permits,” he added. Navin Trital, Managing Director at Expedition Himalaya, lauded the government decision. “It would certainly facilitate world climbers to continue with their expeditions this season,” he told THT.
The government’s indecision has already forced US-based High Adventure Expeditions and Peak Freaks of Canada to cancel their 2015 Everest Expeditions, while Alpenglow Expeditions from the USA and Germany operator Amical Alpin announced to move their operations to the Tibet side.
