Nepalese officials plan to introduce ban on novices, as well as
disabled, old and very young people, in effort to improve safety and lessen
overcrowding
By Jason Burke
 |
Climbers watch sunrise in
to climb the mountain would only be granted to those who can provide ‘
proof of competence’ under the new plans. Photograph:
Bartosz Hadyniak/Ocean/Corbis
|
Nepalese officials say they will
introduce regulations banning inexperienced climbers from attempting Mount Everest in an attempt to improve safety and
maintain the “glory” of the summit.
Kripasur Sherpa, the country’s
tourism minister, said he hoped to implement the rules in time for the spring
season, which usually sees hundreds of mountaineers from across the world
attempt to reach the 29,029ft (8,848 metres) summit of the world’s highest peak.
Permits to climb Everest will only be
given to those who can prove they have already scaled mountains that are higher
than 6,500 metres, officials said. Disabled, old and very young people also
face bans.
“We cannot let everyone go on Everest
and die. If they are not physically and mentally fit it will be like a legal
suicide,” he said.
“The disabled or visually impaired
people usually need someone to carry them, which is not an adventure. Only
those who can go on their own will be given permission.”
The permits cost thousands of dollars
and are a key source of revenue for Nepal
Climbing on Everest, which was first
conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary andTenzing Norgay in 1953, has become
controversial in recent decades.
Every year about 600 climbers come to
Nepal
Junko Tabei, who became the first
woman to conquer Everest in 1975, expressed concerns last week about the
numbers of mountaineers on the peak.
“Allowing a large number of climbers
in a season poses high risks to the mountain environment and the climbers as
well,” Tabei said.
Various measures have been suggested
to ease overcrowding and make the mountain safer for guides and their clients.
A ban on those people who are under 18,
over 75 or disabled would not affect numbers substantially as such climbers are
very rare. The first disabled climber ascended Everest in 1998, an American
mountaineer who had lost part of one leg in a traffic accident. In 2001, a
blind climber reached the summit. The mountain has been scaled by a 13-year-old
and an 80-year-old.
However, there is more support for
regulations banning novice climbers.
Whereas once Everest only attracted
the world’s best and most experienced mountaineers, recent years have seen
aspiring summiteers who are using basic equipment such as an ice axe and
crampons for the first time.
Totally reliant on their paid guides
for their safety, and incapable of helping any other climbers who might be in
trouble, such people are often a liability, veteran mountaineers have
frequently argued.
“Such a rule is going to be
introduced to maintain the glory of Everest,” said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, acting
secretary of the ministry of tourism.
He said that now “everyone is going
to Everest”, levels of risk for all involved had become much higher. “The
Everest summit should be dignified and an issue of glory, so for that the
ministry is working on introducing some limits,” Sapkota said.
There has also been much criticism of
a system in which foreign expedition organisers hire local guides and support
staff whose pay is a tiny fraction of the fees westerners pay to reach the
summit.
A series of major accidents in recent
years have prompted some reforms,with marginally better conditions, protection
and remuneration for the Nepalese working on the mountain, though much remains
to be done.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of
Nepal Mountaineering Association, said the new rules had been frequently
discussed in the past.
He added: “So I doubt this will be
implemented. Earlier such plans were aborted because of pressure from human
rights organisations and foreign embassies.”
Ang Tshering said he would support
“anyone disabled [who] can go on his or her own” to the summit of Everest but
“those who need personal assistance or to be carried to reach the top should
not venture on the peak.”
He believed the age bar would be
positive.
“This can be a good move,” Ang
Tshering said, pointing out that China
DB Parajuli, chairman of the
Expedition Operators’ Association of Nepal, also supported the idea of some
rules to maintain the “importance of Everest”.
Teams of specialist local guides and
climbers have spent weeks preparing a route up Everest for a single Japanese
climber in the hope that a successful ascent would send a message that Nepal
The climber, Nobukazu Kuriki, was
forced to abandon his attempt above the final camp on the mountain’s South Col route. He had lost eight fingers and
a thumb on previous attempts to reach the summit.
