Nepal issues record 492 climbing permits for Everest
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About 1,000 people – climbers and their guides – will be heading for the summit of Everest in the next few weeks.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Nepal issued a record 492 Mount Everest climbing permits this spring, a historic high, generating US$7.1 million in revenue.
- The high number of climbers raises fears of bottlenecks and traffic, recalling 2019 overcrowding which caused multiple deaths.
- An alternate route to South Col is now open after glacial ice disrupted work; climbers are currently acclimatising.
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KATHMANDU – Nepal has issued a record 492 permits to climb Mount Everest in spring 2026, officials said on May 8.
“We have issued a historic high number of permits for Sagarmatha,” Mr Himal Gautam, spokesman for the Tourism Department, told AFP, using the Nepali name for the mountain.
The last record was in 2023, when 478 permits were issued in a post-Covid-19 pandemic rush on the mountains.
As most of these mountaineers will attempt to summit Everest with the help of at least one Nepali guide, about 1,000 climbers will be heading for the summit in the next few weeks.
A team of highly skilled mountaineers, known in Nepal as “icefall doctors”, began fixing ropes and ladders on Everest in April, to prepare for the spring climbing season.
But a serac – a block of glacial ice – above the already treacherous Khumbu Icefall disrupted their work, sparking fears of delays in the limited summit season on the world’s highest peak.
Mr Gautam said the route has been opened up to the South Col mountain pass at 7,906m through an alternative road.
“Climbers are now making acclimatisation rotations as usual and we hope for a good season,” Mr Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, one of the biggest expedition organisers, told AFP.
However, the high number of climbers raises fears of heavy traffic and bottlenecks en route to the summit if there is a shorter window to reach it because of unfavourable weather.
In 2019, a massive queue on Everest forced teams to wait hours in freezing temperatures, lowering depleted oxygen levels that can lead to sickness and exhaustion.
At least four of 11 deaths that year were blamed on overcrowding.
China has closed the summit from the northern Tibet side this season, causing an extra flow of climbers in the south.
Climbers from China received the highest number of permits this season (109), followed by those from the United States (76).
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and foreign climbers who flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue for the country.
The government has collected a total of US$7.1 million (S$9 million) from the Everest permits this season. AFP
