TBM Staff - Mumbai Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by 36%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials have said.
Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers is a key source of revenue and employment for the poor country, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.
A permit to climb 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest would cost USD 15,000, said Narayan Prasad Regmi, Director General of the Department of Tourism, announcing the rise in the USD 11,000 fee that has been in place for nearly a decade.
“The royalty [permit fees] had not been reviewed for a long time. We have updated them now,” Regmi said.
The new rate will come into effect from September and apply for the popular April-May climbing season along the standard South East Ridge, or South Col route, pioneered by the New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Fees for the less popular September-November season and the rarely climbed December-February season will also increase by 36%, to USD 7,500 and USD 3,750 respectively.
Some expedition organisers said the increase, under discussion since last year, was unlikely to discourage climbers. About 300 permits are issued each year for Everest.
Regmi said campaigns to collect waste and rope fixing as well as other safety measures were undertaken regularly. (Source: The Guardian)
