North side of Everest in the last daylight

It could be a record season on Mount Everest. After the successful 2016 season, experts are expecting a run on the highest mountain on earth – especially since many climbers want to use their extended permits from 2014 (valid until 2019) and from 2015 (which will run out this year). In 2014, the season in Nepal had been finished prematurely after an avalanche accident in the Khumbu Icefall with 16 deaths. In 2015, there had been no ascents on both sides of the mountain due to the devastating earthquake in Nepal.

Dominik Mueller, head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin, will set off to Everest with a “small but strong team” on 8 April. Three clients, four Climbing Sherpas and he himself will try to reach the 8,850-meter-high summit via the normal route on the Tibetan north side. “I will use bottled oxygen because I believe that I can only support other people as best as possible when using a breathing mask,” says the 46-year-old. “Anyone who climbs Everest without supplemental oxygen is so preoccupied with himself that he probably has no resources left to look after others.” I talked to him about the upcoming season.

Dominik, with what expectations do you set off to the Himalayas?

Dominik Mueller

There will probably be more climbers, especially on the Everest south side. But on the north side too.

China has once more fueled the price spiral, by more than 30 percent. A permit for climbing Everest now costs nearly 10,000 dollars. What will be the effect?

This will affect not only Everest but Tibet as a whole, because clients will switch back to the Nepali side. I do not think it’s going to change much on Everest. With regard to the objective dangers, I consider the route on the north side as the safer route, although more logistics is needed. But for the other eight-thousanders in Tibet, it will mean that there will be much less climbers.

Many organizers still prefer the Nepali side because they consider China’s policies in Tibet to be more unpredictable. Do you share this reasoning?

It is not more unpredictable than it was eight or ten years ago. For me, the Chinese have been so far very reliable partners in Tibet. You could refer to what you had agreed on. This has always worked well. For example, only a few permits will be sold for Cho Oyu next fall. This was previously communicated. We decided, however, to go to Manaslu instead of Cho Oyu this fall.

The Nepalese side of Cho Oyu

Permit restrictions for next fall are reported not only for Cho Oyu, but also for Shishapangma. Have they told you a reason?

Obviously there will be a kind of event in Tibet this fall. The Chinese are afraid that there may be unrest and therefore want as few foreigners staying in Tibet as possible. I would have had the chance to get permits for Cho Oyu, but I would have had to confirm these permits already now. According to my information from China, only 50 permits will be sold for this fall. The advantage will be that you are quite lonely on the mountain. But there are also disadvantages. For example, you need manpower after heavy snowfall. If you are only with small teams on the mountain, you will have difficulties to secure the route.

Top of Everest (from the Northeast Ridge)

The Swiss expedition operator Kari Kobler has recently pointed out the corruption of Chinese politicians in Tibet. Do you have also problems with this?

There is, of course, corruption – not only in China, but also in other countries around the world, which we visit as climbers. It’s presumptuous to believe that we could change the whole world on this point. We must arrange with it. The only possible consequence would be to stop traveling to these countries. But in this case we would not be able anymore to give jobs to the ordinary people – like Sherpas, cooks or kitchen boys.

In the meantime, more and more Chinese mountaineers are appearing on the eight-thousanders, in Tibet and in Nepal as well. Is China the market of the future?

I don’t believe this for European operators. Chinese climbers will travel more likely with local agencies. I think it would also be difficult to unite Chinese and European clients in a team – just due to the language barrier.

Dawa Steven Sherpa

A 15-meter-high climbing wall in the middle of the tourist quarter Thamel in Kathmandu – who would have thought it? “The wall is the nursery for the sport of climbing in Nepal”, Dawa Steven Sherpa tells me. “All of the young ambitious Sherpa climbers have trained here.” I meet the 32-year-old in the office of “Asian Trekking”. Along with his father Ang Tshering Sherpa, Dawa Steven is managing the leading Nepalese expedition operator. I talk with him about this spring season on Everest – after the avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall in 2014 that killed 16 Nepalese climberes and the earthquake in 2015, that triggered an avalanche from the 7000er Pumori that hit Everest Base Camp killing 19 climbers.

Dawa Steven, Asian Trekking once again offers an Eco Everest Expedition this spring. Will it take place?

Yes, it will start from Kathmandu on 6 April. So far we have 14 foreign members and 21 Sherpas but this number will change by the end of the month.

Do you notice that there is a lower demand this year?

There is not a lower demand for Everest, but it’s the same people from 2015 and 2014 who are coming back. So the big question is: Will there be the same size of expeditions not this but next year?

Everest Southwest Face

We had two years with avalanche accidents and without summit successes from the South. What do you expect for this spring’s season?

It’s not possible to predict natural disasters. But from the mentality and the motivation, the climbers and the Sherpas as well as the operators feel that this has to be a good year, no matter what we have to get this done because three years in a row might cause permanent damage to the tourism industry, to the reputation of Everest and as a result also to the local and national economy. So the mentality is very much of determination that, whatever the case is this year, expeditions have to be successful. There is a lot of pressure on everybody this year.

Dawa Steven Sherpa: A lot of pressure this year

In the sense that it will decide about the future of climbing Everest from the Nepalese side?

I think already a lot of clients who have been in Nepal in the last two years decided that China will be safer for them. Many people feel that the north side has fewer dangers than the south side. But this is just an opinion. The Chinese side has its own challenges, for example more exposure to high altitude.

The government has extended the validity of the 2015 permits by two years. The decision came rather late – as usual?

As usual. There is no surprise there. In 2014, we were really concerned and stressed because the government took such an amount of time to make their decision on the Everest permits. This year we had this experience of 2014. I said to my clients: Don’t worry, the Nepalese government always does things at the last minute. It’s unlike in Europe or America. Things are not done in a timely way, they are only done if they have to be done.

What’s about the announced new rules for Everest climbing like age limits, no more permits for heavily disabled climbers and so on. When will they come?

They will not come, at least not now. I think it’s important to have criteria, selection processes for who should be on the mountain, not only for climbers, but also for operators, guides and Sherpas so that the mountain is climbed in a safe way. But these rules you mention, that was only a statement of the Tourism Minister in a public event, it had no legal backing, there was no documentation and a follow up on that. But the media picked it up and it did a lot of damage to Nepal’s reputation as a destination for climbers.

Dawa Steven Sherpa about new rules on Everest

In my personal opinion, it’s a wrong criterion to say that a disabled person is not allowed to climb. I think it is discrimination. I know many disabled climbers who are better climbers than I am. And there is again discrimination from an age perspective. Age is not a factor. You should not make minors climb, I understand that. Children should not be in a dangerous environment. But it’s wrong to say that a 60, 70 or 80-year-old is not capable, because it’s not up to us. There are people who are in their sixties who are fitter than I am. As long as a doctor says, this person is fine to go to the mountain, that should be a good legal basis for allowing him to climb.

But the Nepal Mountaineering Association is also demanding stricter rules for Everest. Do you think that it’s important to regulate it because maybe the wrong people are on the mountain?

There is definitely a need to regulate who goes to the mountain but at the same time we have to be very careful because it is an economic activity, many people depend on it for jobs. So to make it safer, the focus is always on the climbers. There should be better climbers. But in my personal experience I have also noticed that it is normally not the amateur but the expert climbers who get in trouble. They don’t know the mountain themselves, many of them are climbers from the Alps and the Andes, but don’t really know high altitude. They go with cheap companies and don’t take good Sherpa support. Unlike a rock climb or a small peak, Everest is an expedition. It needs skills from different backgrounds, in logistics, in guiding, in climbing of course. It has to be a combination of these skills that has to be good.

Much traffic on Everest (in 2012)

But amateur climbers are often very slow and responsible for traffic jams on the key points of the route.

Amateur climbers can be slow but so can expert climbers, because it’s not the technical difficulty of Everest that makes people slow, it’s the altitude. You could be a fantastic rock climber or a fantastic mountaineer in the Alps in Switzerland, but the moment you hit 8,000 meters your body doesn’t work in the same way. So to say that amateur climbers are the ones who slow people down is not necessarily true. But of course the logic is that if you are not technically skilled and you are affected by altitude you are definitely going to slow people down.

The second point is management on the mountain. Traffic jams happen when too many people are at the same place at the same time. That is because of bad management from the government side and bad coordination between the different teams. First we have to look to the weather reports. How many weather windows are we going to have in May, maybe five, four, maybe two. So people can split up accordingly. The second thing is: Weather windows last for two to sometimes five days. So people don’t have to go on the same day but can do it one day apart. It can be managed in that way. On a good summer day there are more people on Mont Blanc than on Everest in an entire year. There will be a point where we have to say that’s too many people. But in my opinion we haven’t reached that point. Let’s first manage these people there and the summits, then let’s talk about having quotas and so on.

Everest Base Camp

There were some western operators telling that they won’t offer Everest expeditions any more due to the competition with Nepalese operators that has turned into some kind of price war. Can you understand them?

Absolutely. But it’s not only competition from the Nepali but also from international operators. There are a lot of Nepali operators who are offering it much cheaper. In the past it used to be that Nepali companies did not have the skills to organize and lead expeditions. Now we do. Now we have Nepali climbers who are internationally certified guides. There are companies who are very capable, have the same infrastructure, assets and manpower as the western companies. Yet being local, their overheads are less and so they are able to offer a cheaper price. So the western operators are losing their clients who are looking for price to those companies. At the same time there are a lot of foreign climbers who get a lot of satisfaction and peace of mind by going with a company of their own country. In those cases, people are less concerned about prize and will then look for international operators who are more expensive but have a better reputation. So what you will see is that international operators who are sort of in the middle are losing out their cheap clients to the Nepali companies and the expensive clients to the more expensive international companies. That’s why they are not able to compete now.

Would you say that a new era is coming where only the Nepalese operators will manage expeditions on Everest?

There is a new era of Nepali operators coming, yes, but there is still a niche for the international competitors and only the best of them will survive. Eventually Nepali operators will overtake the western companies because they are getting better every year. It could be in the next five years or ten years. But it’s not to say that international operators are not important. What we see is that western companies who used to organize the expeditions themselves in Nepal are now sending their clients to Nepali operators. They do the marketing and the Nepali companies do the operations. Business keeps changing. If you can’t adept, you are not going to survive.

Dawa Steven Sherpa: New era of operating expedition

Some experts expect that there will be only high end expeditions on the one hand and discount expeditions on the other hand and nothing in between. Do you share this opinion?

I don’t think so. Everything is on a spectrum. When a professional climber comes to us and says, I only need one cook and a tent in Base Camp, everything else I will do myself, then I will organize this expedition accordingly. If I have a lawyer from Hongkong who has a lot of money to spend and he wants three Sherpas and everything to be done for him and he doesn’t want to carry a backpack, I also have a market for that. But most people fall in between. I think there will always be a spectrum. In the past, it used to be that Nepalese were at the bottom providing the cheapest expeditions. And in the middle and at the top were the western operators. Now the bottom and the middleground are taken by the Nepalese, and only the more expensive is provided by the Westerners. It’s only a matter of time before the Nepalese also take over the western operators’ market share.

What do you think about these luxury expeditions: Acclimatizing in oxygen tents in lower regions, flying by helicopter to Base Camp, only food from western countries, one client, one Sherpa and so on? Can you live with this kind of expeditions?

Absolutely. I think there is a place for everyone. When we talk about climbing philosophy, the big problem is that we are looking at it from a western perspective where climbing is a leisure, a philosophical exercise. People talk about the right and the wrong way to do climbing. But in Nepal climbing is an economic activity. Every climber provides jobs for Sherpas, cooks, porters, farmers. So it’s a completely different way that we see climbing. Why would Nepal want to sell mountaineering to foreigners if it is not going to benefit from it? So you have to be very careful. Sherpas are very quickly going to say: If we don’t get jobs on the mountain, why should these foreigners come here and climb on our holy mountains? When a westerner says, this is against the philosophy of mountaineering, it’s against the western philosophy, but is it also against the Nepali philosophy? Nobody ever asks that.  

Dawa Steven Sherpa: Different kinds of climbing philosophies

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

The upcoming spring season on Everest casts its shadows before. Ten “Icefall doctors” were sent to the Base Camp on the Nepalese side of the highest mountain on earth to prepare the route for the commercial expeditions. In the past two years, there had been no summit successes from the south (I deliberately ignore the “success” of Chinese climber Wang Jing and her Sherpa-Team in 2014 who had been flown to Camp 2 by helicopter). In 2014, the spring season had prematurely ended after an ice avalanche in Khumbu Icefall had killed 16 Nepalese climbers. In 2015, the 25 April earthquake had triggered a huge avalanche from Pumori that had hit Everest Base Camp and killed 19 people.

On Monday, the Nepalese cabinet – at last! – gave green light for the extension of the 2015 climbing permits by two years. “It is a welcome move from the government that we hope will help bring back the climbers to the mountains”, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. But it might be too late for many of the about 800 climbers who got a 2015 permit, including 357 Everest aspirants, to return already this spring.

I asked Mingma Gyalje Sherpa about the upcoming season. The 29-year-old, who has already climbed seven eight-thousanders and recently made headlines by solo climbing the difficult West Face of 6685-meter-high Chobutse for the first time, is head of the Kathmandu based expedition and trekking operator Dreamers Destination.

Mingma, the spring season is around the corner. What do you expect, especially on Mount Everest?

I think, there will be as many teams as before but the size of the teams will be smaller. I am happy that Everest will be less crowded this year. It’s going to be safer and there will be more fun for climbers this year. It is good that there will be less traffic jams at the Hillary Step, on the Lhotse face and in the Khumbu Icefall.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

Your company “Dreamers Destination” has an expedition from the Nepalese side of Everest on offer that will be led by you. Did you notice a lower demand due to the incidents in 2014 and 2015?

Obviously, 2014 and 2015 incidents have some impact on Everest but those were by nature. I don’t think it affected that much. We had a good number of clients in autumn and had good business. We have good numbers of climbers for Everest and Lhotse in spring too.

The blockade (in the border region to Nepal) became a more powerful reason to lower tourist demand for Nepal. Most of my foreign friends are worried just because of the blockade which continued over 5 months. They don’t want to waste their money and time visiting Nepal in such a situation. However, the blockade is over and situation here is getting better, so we can expect good numbers of tourists in the autumn season but not already in spring.

How is the mood within the Sherpa community? Depressed, optimistic, somewhere in between?

Due to the incidents in 2014 and 2015, few Sherpa climbers stopped their profession because of pressure they got by their families. But more are hopeful to receive good numbers of tourists and to work for them.

South side of Mount Everest

As so often, there have been uncertainties due to the hesitancy of the Nepalese Government. The final decision on the prolongation of the 2015 permits has come late, but the proposed new climbing rules on Everest are still missing. Does the Government’s slowness cause problems for you as an expedition operator?

Yes, it definitely does. We are just a couple of weeks before the start of spring season, and until yesterday there was no final decision about permit extension. Now it is there. It’s a good decision in favor of climbers and survival of tourism business in Nepal. Regarding new climbing rules, we don’t expect them in the near future.

Some western operators have decided to withdraw from Everest arguing that local operators in Nepal offer dumping prices they cannot compete with. What do you think about this?

It is true that competition with Nepalese operators is not easy in terms of price. There are only few notable Nepalese companies which provide better service than western operators, but there are more Nepalese companies which just focus on cheaper price and cheaper service, just to attract more and more tourists. And these companies lead to more accidents. They won’t have a long lasting future. But I feel, western companies are more reliable and responsible in terms of providing service and promises. They work for their goodwill and future.

Everest Base Camp

The competition is not only with western companies but it’s among Nepalese operators too. I guess we are among those who provide good service and we try not to let down our clients’ expectation. Even for us, it is very difficult to compete with other cheaper operators. Like the old proverb “where there is a will there is a way”, cheap operators get clients fit for them, we get clients fit for us and western companies get clients fit for them. What I feel is that more climbers trust western operators than Nepalese operators, but again in the end price matters. But there are more and more tourists who think of their safety rather than the price.

These western operators also accuse Nepalese competitors to engage local staff from poor areas in Nepal paying them only poor wages. What truth is there to it?

It’s fifty-fifty. Yes, there are many companies which provide poor wages but it depends more on the staff and their qualification. I have friends who are UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations) certified guides. They charge 15,000 US Dollar for Everest expeditions, which is much more in comparison with western guides. In the meantime, there are local guides who charge 85,000 Nepali Rupees (around 800 USD).

So it depends on the clients: The more they pay to Nepalese or western operators, the more likely they will get good and experienced Sherpa. The less they pay, the more likely they will get unprofessional staff and that will put them into trouble.

About two months ago, you told me that 2016 would decide the future of mountain tourism in Nepal. How do you feel about this today?

2016 is a very difficult year for Nepal. For sure, there will be very less tourists in Nepal this spring season. I am more hopeful for autumn season. If autumn season will also bring less numbers of tourists, then there won’t be a good future in tourism business in Nepal for many years.

Russell Brice

He is the doyen of the western expedition operators. The New Zealander Russell Brice has been leading expeditions to the Himalayas since 1974. Hardly any of his colleagues has so much experience as the 63-year-old head of Himalayan Experience, not only in organizing trips to the eight-thousanders but also in dealing with the authorities. It is something that has almost been forgotten, that Russell at an earlier age was an excellent high altitude climber – and an Everest pioneer: Along with the Briton Harry Taylor he first climbed the Three Pinnacles on the Northeast Ridge in 1988.
I wanted to know what Brice thinks about the current situation in Nepal:

Russ, for this spring Himalayan Experience is offering expeditions in Nepal to Mount Everest and Lhotse. How great is the demand?

Very small numbers compared to past years.

Do you notice an impact of the events in 2014 (avalanche in Khumbu Icefall) and 2015 (earthquake and avalanche that hit Everest BC) on your client’s attitude?

Yes very much so, many people want to see a safe and successful season before they book. So the 2016 season will be quite important as an indication that we can still climb Everest relatively safely.

South side of Mount Everest

In 2015, the Nepalese authorities announced stricter rules for climbers on Everest – restrictions on age (denying access to climbers younger than 18 and older than 75), a minimum of high mountaineering experience (at least having scaled a 6,500 m peak) and physical requirements. What do you think about this?

Nepal authorities are always making announcements but then it takes them forever to actually formalise. Yes I think that it is a good idea to make a minimum and maximum age limit as this can stop some ridiculous pursuit by some.

To climb 6,500m means nothing. You can climb a relatively easy summit like Aconcagua and this would be admissible, but a more difficult summit like Denali is not admissible. Do you think the Nepal authorities have any idea if people have climbed these summits or not, of course not, and they do not take any interest in any case, and most people will just lie. Much better to ask that Everest climbers have climbed another 8,000m summit before Everest, and then the Nepal authorities actually have a chance to check.

Two and half months before the beginning of the spring season, these new regulations have not yet come in effect – as little as the promised extension of 2015 climbing permits. Are you annoyed at the government’s apathy – or maybe used to it?

Yes totally I am extremely disappointed in the lack of effort by the government to distribute earthquake funds to those who need help, and the lack of interest to try and rebuild the tourist industry. So easy to make statements and then do nothing.

I heard that there will be a climbing permit credit for those that were on expeditions last year, for two years, but again this has not been passed at parliament level, and we have no details of how it will be implemented. So how can we pass this on to our members.

Last year we got our previous permit credits at 8 o’clock the night before we left for BC at 06.00 the next morning. So it was us as operators who took a big risk in bringing these members to Nepal, with no support from the authorities.

North side of Mount Everest

Despite of the fact that there were no summit successes from the Nepalese side of Everest in the past two years, you don’t switch over to north. Why not?

I am not geared up to operate in Tibet, but also still do not trust the Chinese authorities like Tibet was closed again this last autumn season. When Tibet was closed 3 days before I was supposed to go there in 2008 I lost a quarter million dollars, I cannot afford to have this happen again.

But also I need to try and help the Nepal people as much as I can, the government certainly isn’t.

The situation in Nepal is still difficult – also due to the continuing blockade of the Nepalese border with India. Do you look forward to the upcoming spring season with optimism or mixed feelings?

I am ashamed and embarrassed that the new Nepalese government has not been able to resolve the embargo after so many months. I am also very worried that it will not be resolved by the time that the climbing season starts, and this is going to have a big impact on us as operators with the cost of food, fuel, transport and the like.

I am not looking forward to the next season, but we need to be there and be positive, because if the local authorities cannot offer that, then we had best do our best. Too many people rely upon us to bring tourists to Nepal, so we need to do our best to try and rebuild this business.

Expensive rescue

“I am not in the government to wait and see”, Ananda Prasad Pokharel said in early November after his appointment as the new Nepalese Tourism Minister. “I am here to change.” However, one of his first initiatives concerning mountain tourism doesn’t testify his farsightedness but looks more like a crazy idea. Pokharel’s ministry plans to reduce the insurances for Nepalese staff on expeditions – by up to 60 percent on mountains that are lower than 6,500 meters. Thus mountain tourism should be stimulated again, it said. The visitor numbers in Nepal had slumped dramatically after the devastating earthquake in April and also because of the still existing blockade of the border with India.
Even many Nepalis shake their heads about the government’s plan. “As an owner of the agency Dreamers Destination Trek, I prefer reduction in every kind of insurance. It is good for my company and it is good for my clients”, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa writes to me. “But being myself a climber and born in a climber’s family, I wish an increment of insurances in favor of climbers.”

Barely able to make ends meet

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

The 29-year-old, who has already climbed seven eight-thousanders and recently made headlines by solo climbing the difficult West Face of 6685-meter-high Chobutse for the first time, describes his father’s fate: He had been a top climber at his young age, but in 1983 on Everest, he had lost eight fingers due to frostbite. Afterwards his father had never been given the opportunity to participate in big expeditions and to earn good money. He had been barely able to make ends meet. “Those people who make rules should better take these points into consideration.”

“This is nothing at present time”

Mingma on Chobutse

Mingma considers the insurances, which are paid in case of death to the families of the victims, to be much too low: for expeditions on mountains higher than 6,500 meters, 15,000 US dollars for high altitude porters and mountain guides and $ 8,000 for Base Camp staff. “This is nothing at present time”, says Mingma. He argues to raise not only these insurances but also those for helicopter rescue, rather than reducing it. $ 10,000 on high mountains are by far not enough to cover the costs incurred in case of an accident, he says. A rescue flight above 7,000 meters will cost significantly more than $ 15,000. During his descent on Chobutse, Mingma himself had got in trouble and been flown out by helicopter: “My rescue charge war $ 15,400. I hardly get $ 10,000 from the insurance company, the remaining amount I have to pay out of my own pocket.”

2016 will decide the future

There are significantly more effective means to boost tourism in Nepal than cutting insurances, says Mingma. So the government should “provide a stable political situation”. In addition they should extend the 2015 climbing permits for further two to three years: “There are some climbers who were in Nepal for climbing Everest and Lhotse in 2014 and 2015. They have spent lots of money and must be frustrated and hopeless because of those two bad years.”
The Tourism Ministry should focus on showing that Nepal is a safe travel destination in every respect, says Mingma. “If the year 2016 goes well, the upcoming years will be good by itself.”

Tourism Minister Kripasur Sherpa

The Nepalese government apparently wants to make sure that Mount Everest is taken seriously again. Speaking at an event in Kathmandu on the occasion of the World Tourism Day on Sunday, Tourism Minister Kripasur Sherpa said that new age limits and other more stringent conditions on granting permits for Everest expeditions were in preparation. It is considered to allow only climbers aged between 18 and 75 to climb the highest mountain on earth.

Summiters between 13 and 80

The current regulation is “that the permit shall not be provided to that person who is under the age of 16”. And there is no limit yet for old climbers. The youngest climber ever who scaled Everest was the American Jordan Romero aged 13 years and ten months in 2010, the oldest the Japanese Yuichiro Miura aged 80 years and seven months in 2013. Recently, the family of the now eleven-year-old American Tyler Armstrong had announced that he would try to climb Everest next spring.

“Climbing Everest is not a joke”

South side of Mount Everest

On Sunday, Kripasur Sherpa referred to potential restrictions for disabled climbers too. “We won’t issue permits to individuals with serious disabilities who cannot go to Everest on their own”, said the Minister. Tourism Department chief Govinda Karki spoke it out even more clearly. “We don’t think we should issue permits to people who cannot see or walk or who don’t have arms”, Karki told the news agency AFP. “Climbing Everest is not a joke. It is not a matter of discrimination. How can you climb without legs? Someone will have to carry you up.” Disabled climbers may not like these words. There have been several mountaineers who have already scaled Everest despite blindness or with arm or leg prostheses.

At least once on 6,500 meters

The government is also determined to ban very inexperienced climbers from Everest. Anyone should have reached an altitude of at least 6,500 meters before trying to climb Everest, Karki said.
There have already been announcements of stricter rules for permits in recent years, but in the end nothing happened. So, let’s wait and see.

On Cho Oyu (8,188 m) in Tibet

China is closing Tibet for climbers for the rest of this year. “That is correct”, Dawa Steven Sherpa from the Nepalese expedition operator Asian Trekking confirms to me by email. “The Chinese authorities have decided not to issue permits for climbing in the autumn season in fear of further seismic activity telling that the mountains may be in a dangerous condition. They will issue climbing permits from 2016.” Furthermore, says Dawa Steven, the road that connects Nepal and Tibet, is still closed as it is under repair after the earthquake. “That means that equipment and logistics for the expeditions would not be possible to be transported via Nepal.”

Xi comes

Shishapangma (8,027 m) in Tibet

The Swiss operator Kari Kobler has abandoned the expeditions to the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma that he had initially scheduled for next fall. Apart from the earthquake damage on the road to Tibet Kari tells me another reason for China not to issue permits: “The Chinese president will visit Tibet in the first two weeks of September.” 50 years ago, in September 1965, China had declared the previously occupied Tibet an “Autonomous Region”. The Chinese government will celebrate itself with some events in Tibet, probably with a large contingent of security forces to nip potential protests by Tibetans in the bud – especially when President Xi Jingping shows up in person. Foreign eyewitnesses have already been undesirable on similar occasions in the past. This is probably the main reason for giving no permits to expeditions next fall, as the example of International Mountain Guides (IMG) shows. Due to the earthquake damage in Nepal, the US operator had planned to travel directly via the Tibetan capital Lhasa to Cho Oyu, but did not get a permit too, with reference to the jubilee events in Tibet.

Alternative destination Manaslu

Manaslu (8,163 m) in Nepal

“Due to the current political fragility of Tibet we are unable to obtain guaranteed access for expeditions”, also the New Zealand operator Himalayan Experience informs. Himex has replaced the expedition to Cho Oyu by one to Manaslu in Nepal. The eighth highest mountain in the world is a popular alternative destination in case that China is closing the borders to Tibet. Already in fall 2012, many operators had offered expeditions to Manaslu instead of the cancelled one to the Tibetan eight-thousanders. The base camp at the foot of the “Mountain of the Spirit” might become crowded. Teams of many western operators (including the German operator Amical alpin) will set off to Manaslu in the upcoming post-monsoon period. Despite the earthquake with nearly 9,000 registered deaths and more than 22,000 injured, the Nepalese authorities have no doubt to issue permits for eight-thousander expeditions.

Update: Dan Mazur from the operator Summit Climb has informed me that they also have moved all their Cho Oyu and Shishapangma teams for this fall to Manaslu: “We were informed by our contact at the CTMA that because of the magnitude 8.1 devastating earthquake, the authoritative geologists in China surveyed the mountains. They decided that it is unsuitable to climb this year.”

Nepalese south side of Mount Everest

The Base Camps on both sides of Mount Everest have got empty eleven days after the devastating earthquake in Nepal. The climbers are on their way back. What about their permits, after they could not even make a single attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth? In Nepal, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) has requested the government to extend this year’s permits until 2016.

Risk too high

The SPCC is responsible for the Sherpa team setting up and maintaining the route through the Khumbu Icefall. The committee defended its decision not to send the “Icefall Doctors” back to the Base Camp. The earthquake on 25 April had triggered an avalanche from Pumori, which had killed 19 people at Base Camp. “The risk of setting a route in the current situation cannot be taken”, the SPCC’s statement says. In addition, the window of time until the start of the monsoon was now too narrow. And “many of the Icefall Doctors as well as the local support staff in the remaining expedition teams have suffered family deaths or injuries”, tells the SPCC.

Government is considering

The permits in Nepal are valid until end of May. Those responsible in Kathmandu are keeping a low profile on the matter. “The government will study whether it would be better to refund their money [11,000 US $ per expedition member] or extend the climbing permit validity”, said Tulsi Prasad Gautam, director general of the Department of Tourism. That would take at least two months. After the spring season 2014 on Everest had ended prematurely due to the avalanche disaster with 16 deaths, the authorities had extended the permits until 2019 – however, this decision had taken eleven months.

China reacts unbureaucratic

Tibetan north side of Everest

How to act quickly and without bureaucracy, the Chinese authorities have shown us – so far not just known for such behavior. After they had stopped all activities on the Tibetan mountains last week, they announced that the permits for Everest and the two other Tibetan eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma would remain valid for three years. Only an additional fee of 500 or 300 dollars will have to be paid. The expeditions also received a statement in which the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) informed about the reasons to cancel the season: “The devastating earthquake changes the structure of ice and snow of the whole Himalaya, it becomes unstable and dangerous, avalanches occur at any time. More aftershocks continue, extreme weather and secondary disasters will follow up, it significantly increases the risk of montaineering.” Many Sherpa guides were eager to return to Nepal, the CTMA added and said that the decision to end the season also showed the “respect to the dead people” on the south side of Mount Everest.

Russell Brice

The decision of the Nepalese Government to extend last year’s Everest permits until 2019 came late, very late. “The Everest season starts in a few days, my staff are already on their way to Base Camp, so our planning has been going on for months”, Russell Brice, head of the New Zealand expedition operator Himalayan Experience, writes to me. “Food, oxygen and equipment are already in the Khumbu and members will be arriving in Kathmandu as from Monday next week.” He has some members that were at Everest last year coming back this year, says Russ. There is no sign of euphoria in his words about the decision to prolong the permits. “For the Nepalese government to take so long in making this decision is detrimental to Nepalese tourist business and devastating to employment opportunities for local people and the local economy.” It is unacceptable, says Brice, “that operators like us take the risk and continue with our planning, at huge financial risk.”

Small paper

The 62-year-old New Zealander has been leading expeditions to the Himalayas since 1974. Due to his strong experience, in a way Brice is something like the voice of the foreign expedition operators. He obviously doesn’t believe any more in the competence of the responsible persons in Kathmandu: “From a government that cannot rewrite the National Constitution for Nepal after nine years, what does one expect? So we are lucky that they could ‘push’ through a small paper in one year.”

Economic factor Mount Everest

Nepal sees his mountain luck run out. “The government must frame policies to gain a competitive edge”, a report by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said which was quoted in the “Himalayan Times”. The neighbouring countries had started aggressive campaigns to attract more climbers. India had offered a discount of 50 per cent on climbing fees, Pakistan had waived off royalties for all peaks below 6500 meters, the report said. Nepal is charging fees for mountains which are much lower, e.g. for 5500-meter-high Chhukung Ri, a popular trekking peak in the Khumbu region.

Online visa applications

Last year 298 expeditions came to Nepal, twelve less than in 2012. The revenue from climbing fees fell by more than seven per cent to 3,91 million US-Dollar. Ang Tshering Sherpa, former long-time president of the Nepalese Mountaineering Association, sees the reason for this in the parliamentary elections last November. The tour operators were fearing strikes or even violence that might leave their clients stranded for days, Ang Tshering said. The government in Kathmandu has just made a first step to friendliness towards customers by launching an online application system for Nepal.

Everest makes the cash tills ringing

The data of the tourism ministry show how much the country is depending on expeditions to Mount Everest. The permit fees for the highest mountain on earth made 80 per cent of the revenue. There was a large gap to the 8000ers Lhotse (4,5 per cent) and Manalsu (4,2 per cent) in second and third place. Considering the outstanding importance of Everest it is little wonder that all discussions in Nepal about stricter rules for climbers have fizzled out.

6000er before climbing Everest

Recently, Ang Tshering Sherpa said in an interview with the German newspaper „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, there would be almost no changes for foreign climbers on Everest in 2014. They would only have to get a special permit by the tourism ministry if they want to make a record attempt on Everest. That was recommended by a commission with Ang Tshering. Furthermore it had proposed that mountaineers from Nepal should have climbed at least a 6000er before getting a permit for the highest mountain. In recent years there have been complaints about poor climbing skills of some Sherpas on Mount Everest.