KATHMANDU – Four hundred and two climbers from 53 countries have taken permits as of April 27 for climbing Mt Everest, the world’s tallest peak, in this spring climbing season this year, the Department of Tourism said.
Seventy-four among them are women. Department Director Liladhar Awasthi said that 41 expeditions have taken permission.
In the same season last year, a total of 414 people, including 75 women and 339 men from 41 mountaineering expeditions, had taken permission to climb Mt Everest.
Royalty of Rs 684 million has been collected from the permits issued for climbing various mountain peaks this year.
The Department stated that the royalty amount is expected to increase further as climbers continue to arrive.
The Department has set up a field office at the Everest Base Camp to ensure safe, orderly mountain climbing and to regulate the mountaineering activities in the Mt Everest. It is stated that during the 72 years of climbing Mt Everest, many new records have been set as a growing number of mountaineers jostle to stand tall on the top of the Everest.
Even though climbing Mt Everest is fraught with risk and challenging, an increasing number of climbers are still aspiring for ascending the tallest mountain on Earth.
One of them is Solukhumbu’s Tashi Gyaljen Sherpa who has set out to climb Mt Everest four times in 20 days this season with the aim of setting a new record.
So far, more than 8,000 domestic and foreign climbers have reached atop the highest peak in the history of Everest climbing and the trend of setting new record continues.
