Everest Permits Soar to $15,000 Starting 2025

International climbers aspiring to conquer the 8,848.86 meters peak are charged $11,000.

In an effort to regulate mountain tourism and address concerns surrounding the escalating fatality count on the world’s tallest peak, Nepal is set to raise the cost of an Everest climbing permit by $4,000, bringing it to $15,000.

“The Department of Tourism’s spokesperson, Yubaraj Khatiwada, has revealed our intention to introduce a revised royalty fee of $15,000 per foreign individual. This adjustment is scheduled to take effect from the start of 2025,” announced Khatiwada.

Presently, an ascent permit for the towering 8,848.86-meter Himalayan behemoth carries a price tag of $11,000 for international climbers, while Nepali climbers are charged Rs75,000.

The government carried out the most recent adjustment to the royalty fee on January 1, 2015. Back then, a climbing expedition with a cap of 15 members incurred a charge of $10,000 per individual.

Subsequently, the government abandoned the group-based structure and introduced a flat fee of $11,000 for each foreign climber to conquer the summit via the standard route (South East Ridge) during the spring season.

In the ongoing efforts to refine mountaineering practices, Nepal’s tourism authorities are in the process of revising mountaineering regulations, presenting a series of fresh guidelines.

Rakesh Gurung, the director of the mountaineering section at the Department of Tourism, has outlined that along with the climbing fee adjustment, enhancements will also be made to the insurance coverage, wages, and amenities for porters, high-altitude workers, and guides.

Gurung highlighted that foreign expedition agencies working in Nepal will be required to formalize their transactions and operations. Currently, there is a lack of records regarding the fees foreign agencies charge their clients for Everest and other peak ascents.

To ensure minimal disruption to agencies that have already booked expeditions for 2024, a grace period has been granted, according to Gurung.

Among the amendments introduced, a particularly stringent regulation mandates the retrieval of deceased individuals from the mountain.

Insiders in the industry have noted a growing trend of leaving bodies on the mountain despite having insurance coverage. Retrieving a deceased body in the Death Zone, situated above 8,000 meters, is a complex and expensive endeavor due to the thin atmosphere. The cost of removing a body from extreme altitudes can range from $20,000 to $200,000, as per mountaineering officials.

Each year, a significant number of climbers’ remains are left on Everest due to the challenging and costly logistics of their retrieval.

Gurung reported that 17 climbers lost their lives on Everest from the Nepal side during the most recent spring season.

The history of Everest’s challenges includes a tragic avalanche near the base camp in 2014 that claimed the lives of 16 Nepali guides, with three bodies remaining unrecovered due to high risks. Subsequent years saw fatalities caused by avalanches triggered by earthquakes, with the death toll reaching six in 2016 and five in 2017.

Nima Nuru Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, stressed the need to make insurance mandatory for search and rescue efforts, expanding coverage to support the recovery of bodies from the mountain.

In scenarios where bodies cannot be retrieved during the relevant time or season, Sherpa proposed the issuance of royalty-free permits by the government to recover them in the following season.

The overarching goal of revising the current mountaineering regulations is to streamline the industry.

During the recently concluded spring climbing season, Nepal issued an unprecedented 478 permits for Everest ascents, surpassing the previous record of 409 in 2021.

The climbers have expressed that the unpredictable weather conditions on Everest during this spring season have contributed to one of the highest casualty rates. Traditionally, Everest ascents predominantly take place in the spring, with no climbs recorded in the winter since 1993 and in the autumn since 2010.

Khim Lal Gautam, the government’s base camp coordinator for this season, shared that over 150 helicopter rescues were conducted from Camp II on Everest due to injuries this spring. He noted that numerous climbers suffered frostbite due to erratic and unforeseen weather patterns.

Despite the presence of some of the world’s most skilled meteorologists who gather to provide accurate weather data each year, none of their predictions proved accurate this season, according to Mingma G, the managing director of Imagine Nepal, an expedition company responsible for preparing the route to the Everest summit. He acknowledged that the weather conditions had been unusually harsh for climbers this spring, with temperatures plummeting to around -35 degrees Celsius, a significant drop from the typical -25 degrees Celsius. This severe weather change led to an increase in both casualties and injuries.

According to the Himalayan Database, which documents expeditions and fatalities in the Himalayas, more than 200 deaths have been recorded on the Nepal side of Everest between the inaugural summit by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953 and 2022.

While the rising death toll hasn’t deterred the allure of Everest, as the number of aspiring climbers continues to rise, the mountain’s popularity remains undiminished. In the spring of 2022, a record-breaking 658 climbers successfully reached the summit.

Although the Tourism Department has yet to release the official statistics for successful climbs this spring, officials have indicated that there were approximately 644 successful ascents, slightly lower than the 2022 count.

Combining estimates, there have been 8,270 successful summit ascents from the Nepal side since 1953. When considering both Nepal and China, the total summits from both countries have now approached nearly 12,000, as per the combined data of the Nepal government and Himalayan Database.

Mount Everest spans the border between Nepal and China, offering routes from both its northern and southern faces. Climbing from the Chinese side is often more cost-effective due to lower royalty fees and a motorable road leading to the base camp.

The Nepal government reaped $5.08 million in revenue solely from Everest during this spring climbing season.

News source: kathmandupost.com

Related: Everest Base Camp Trek Permits 2023