Katmandu, 25 April: The government has registered a tourism bill in Parliament that will allow only those who have climbed a mountain higher than 7,000 meters in Nepal to be permitted to summit Mount Everest.
Recently, with the growing number of climbers, there has been a rising demand for making mountaineering experience mandatory for those wishing to summit the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. Currently, the existing tourism laws and regulations do not specify any experience requirements for climbing Mount Everest.
“There has been an argument that some experience is needed to climb Mount Everest,” said Himal Gautam, Director of the Department of Tourism, in an interview with Setopati. “The new bill proposes that only those who have climbed a mountain over 7,000 meters should be allowed to climb Mount Everest. This will also promote other mountains in Nepal.”
As climbers have increasingly chosen to scale peaks above 8,000 meters, the government has adopted this policy to increase the number of climbers on mountains with lower altitudes. “The government has opened up climbing for new mountains as well, but there is less interest among climbers,” Gautam added. “Now, more of Nepal’s mountains will be promoted.”
Thaneswar Guragain, the Managing Director of Seven Summit Trek, the pioneer company for guiding Everest expeditions, stated that currently there is no specific experience requirement for climbing Mount Everest.
“There has often been a debate that one should have climbed a mountain at an altitude of 6,000 to 7,000 meters, but there is no legal provision for this,” Guragain said. “We provide training to those who wish to climb mountains. We only give the opportunity to those who are ‘best athletes.'”
The bill stipulates that individuals wishing to climb mountains must provide a satisfactory health check certificate, and those whose health certificate is not satisfactory will not be allowed to undertake mountaineering or join a mountaineering team. A health check certificate from the last month will be mandatory for those intending to climb.
The bill, which has been registered in the National Assembly, also specifies that mountaineering teams must follow the designated route as approved by the Department. If anyone wishes to take a different route, prior approval will be required.
