ANDhe Government of Nepal has proposed raising the price of the climbing permit for the top of Everest at 15,000 dollars per personbetween an increase in the number of climbers and the congestion of the Nepalese route to “the roof of the world”.
The $4,000 increase in the royalty rateat 15,000 dollars per person for foreigners, could be implemented as of 2025, the spokesman for the Department of Tourism told EFE today, Yubaraj Khatiwadarepresentative of the government agency that issues climbing permits.
“The new provision will be implemented at the beginning of 2025, since the expedition agencies have already taken the reservations for 2024,” he explained.
The measure aims to rationalize mountain tourism and control the number of climbers amid concerns over the rising death toll on the world’s highest peak.
A permit to climb Everest, 8,848.86 meters, It currently costs $11,000 for a foreigner and $568 for a Nepali.
The director of the mountaineering section of the Department of Tourism, Rakesh GurungHe told EFE that the Government is also increasing insurance and other facilities for porters, high-altitude workers and guides.
Recover the bodies, an obligation
The new guideline will establish the mandatory provision that the bodies of people who die in the climb must be recovered from the mountain.
There has been an increasing tendency to leave the bodies on the mountain, since recovering a corpse in the “death zone”, above 8,000 meters where oxygen is scarce, implies high costs.
Retrieve the bodies from the higher camps can cost up to $200,000.
According to Gurung, 17 people who climbed from the Nepal side have died on Everest this spring season.
Each foreigner currently pays about $11,000 per permit, to which expenses of between 40,000 and 90,000 dollars are added for equipment and companions with whom to climb.
