Tourist board criticised for new regulations,
which also prohibit solo ascents with the aim of reducing the number of
accidents
By Michael
Safi
 |
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Six
people died this year trying to reach the summit of Everest, while 648 people
succeeded.
Photograph:
Tashi Sherpa/AP
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Solo climbers, blind people and double
amputees have been banned from climbing Everest under new rules the Nepalese
tourism ministry believes will reduce the number of deaths on the mountain.
The changes have provoked criticism from the
US ambassador to Nepal and a former Gurkha soldier planning to scale the peak
after losing both legs in Afghanistan.
The new rules have been under discussion for
a month and were implemented this week, Nepalese officials told the Himalayan
Times.
Individual climbers will need to be
accompanied by a mountain guide, and high-altitude workers who accompany
expeditions to the summit are eligible to receive summit certificates under the
revised regulations.
A suggested upper age limit of 76 for
climbers – which Nepalese alpine associations had lobbied for after the death
of an 85-year-old climber in May – has not been implemented, but the government
maintained the ban on climbers under 16.
Everest once attracted only elite climbers,
but as the relative cost of scaling the peak has fallen the mountain has drawn
record numbers of aspiring mountaineers, including many from China and India.
Experienced climbers have raised concern that
the mountain is becoming dangerously overcrowded and that new companies with
lower safety standards have rushed to fill demand in the market.
The Nepalese government tightens the
eligibility criteria for permits to scale the 8,848m (29,029ft) peak from the
Nepal side before each spring climbing season, but enforcement is patchy and
rules are frequently overlooked.
One veteran climber, Alan Arnette, said the
ban on amputee and visually impaired climbers was prejudiced, ignorant and
irrational. “If this is about protecting people from their own ambitions, then
over half of the annual climbers should be banned each year as they lack the
experience to safely climb Everest,” he wrote on his blog.
“And where does this stop – people with
asthma, diabetes, hemophiliacs or cancer? All of these have recently
successfully summited Everest with no problems.”
According to the Himalayan Database, 29
people with disabilities have attempted to climb Everest, and 15 have reached
the top. Two – Phur Yemba Sherpa in 2014 and Thomas Weber in 2006 – died on the
mountain.
Another 288 non-disabled people have died on
Everest from 8,306 attempts since 1953. Six people died this year, and 648 reached
the summit, the second-highest for a single climbing season. Around 237 climbed
from the Tibetan side.
The new rules were criticised by Hari Budha
Magar, a Gurkha soldier who lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan and
is training to become the first above-knee double amputee to climb Everest.
“Nepal should be proud of me, not banning
me,” he wrote on Facebook. “I will be climbing Everest whatever the cabinet
decides. Nothing Is Impossible.”
The ban was also criticised by the US
ambassador to Nepal, Alaina B Teplitz, who tweeted: “Ability not perceived
‘disability’ must guide rules on who can trek Everest.
“Climbers like Hari Budha Magar shouldn’t be
banned because of false assumptions about capabilities. Accessible tourism for
ALL will make it clear that Nepal welcomes everyone!”
