New safety measures in Nepal will ban solo climbers and people with some disabilities from scaling the country's mountains. More than 290 people have died attempting to scale Everest, the world's highest mountain.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Schmidt
Advertisement
As of Monday, foreign climbers in Nepal — including those scaling Mount Everest — must be accompanied by a guide, and people who are blind or double amputee will not be able to climb at all, following a revision of the country's mountaineering regulations.
It is unclear whether the government will allow foreign guides with a climbing license to make solo bids or act as a climbing guide, according to The Kathmandu Post newspaper.
Nepal's Tourism Secretary Maheshwor Neupane said the law had been revised to make climbing safer and decrease the number of deaths. More than 290 people have died while attempting to scale Everest, the world's highest peak.
Mount Everest - the 60th anniversary of the first ascent
A lot has changed atop the world's highest peak in the decades since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach its summit in 1953.
Image: DW/S. Nestler
Coded Message
"Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned May twentynine stop awaiting improvement stop all well." Decoded: Hillary and Tenzing had reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29. The dispatch was greeted with joyous celebration when it reached London on June 1, 1953, just in time for the queen's coronation.
Image: DW/S. Nestler
Who really reached the summit first?
Not long after New Zealander Edmund Hillary (right) and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay had ended their expedition, the question of who had been the first to reach the top became political. Nepal and India claimed the victory as their own. Years later, Hillary revealed a long-kept secret: he was actually a few steps ahead of Tenzing.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Conquering and reconquering the mountain
The world's finest alpinists tackled Everest over the next three decades, leaving no challenge unconquered. In 1978, the South Tyrolian Reinhold Messner (right) and the Austrian Peter Habeler (left) become the first to ascend to the peak without oxygen.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Get in line
In the early 1990s, groups started racing to reach the summit. Hundreds of mountaineers have climbed the mountain every year since. There have been at least 6,000 successful ascents on record. During the few windows of good weather, long lines form along the mountain's normal routes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Summit filled with climbers
Reaching the summit successfully requires at least four days of stable weather. Most expeditions set out at the same time because almost all of them rely on the same forecasts. It's common to see hundreds of climbers at the top on the same day.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Sherpas lead the way
Hardly any mountaineers would make it past base camp without the help of Sherpas. The native mountain-dwelling group finds and secures a safe path through the Khumbu glacier with ropes and ladders. They put fixed ropes in place for commercial expeditions all the way up to the peak.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Record-breaking climbs
Every year records are broken on Mt. Everest. This spring, 80-year old Japanese man, Yuichiro Miura, reached the highest point at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet), making him the oldest person to ever do so. The youngest is Jordan Romero, who set the record in 2010 at the age of 13.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
High-altitude rescue
In 2003, a fatal helicopter crash at base camp claims two lives. Ten years later, helicopter take-offs and landings are an everyday occurrence at the foot of Mt. Everest. The highest helicopter rescue on record to date took place at 7,800 meters.
Image: Getty Images
Making a statement
Apa Sherpa stood on the top of Mt. Everest a record 21 times before retiring. He unfurled a banner on his last expedition calling for climate change awareness. Apa Sherpa's record was matched this year by Nepalese compatriot Phurba Tashi.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Climate change takes its toll on Mt. Everest
Climate change has affected the world's highest peak. Over the past 50 years, its masses of ice have shrunk roughly 13 percent. The Nepalese government held its second extraordinary meeting at the foot of Mt.Everest in 2009. The cabinet members wear oxygen masks in order to avoid altitude sickness.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Everest pride
Nepal owes much to Mt. Everest. Money from the tourism it generates is the country's most important source of income. Every year on May 29, Nepal commemorates "International Mount Everest Day" as a celebration of the first successful ascent to the top in 1953. Even Kathmandus' chefs show how proud they are of it.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Keep the visitors coming!
Up until now, Nepal has ignored all suggestions that it should reduce the number of visitors to its prized peak. Who can blame it?
Image: DW/S. Nestler
12 images1 | 12
Experienced Swiss climber Ueli Steck lost his life in April this year when he slipped and fell from a steep ridge during a solo acclimatization climb to Nuptse, a peak neighboring Everest.
"We have also adopted a strict provision to check the medical certificate of the climbers to determine whether they are physically fit to climb the mountains," Neupane told The Kathmandu Post.
The ban is likely to anger elite solo mountaineers, who enjoy the challenge of climbing alone, even without bottled oxygen, and who blame a huge influx of commercial expeditions for creating potentially deadly bottlenecks on the world's tallest mountain.
More than 290 people have died climbing EverestImage: Getty Images/P.D.Sherpa
Some officials have expressed concern that imposing the ban on people with disabilities could qualify as discrimination, the Post reported.
New Zealander Mark Inglis, who lost both his legs to frostbite, became the first double amputee to reach the top of the 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) peak in 2006.
Blind American Erik Weihenmayer scaled Everest in May 2001 and later became the only visually impaired person to summit the highest peaks on all seven continents.
Thousands of mountaineers flock to Nepal — home to eight of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000 meters — each spring and autumn when clear weather provides good climbing conditions.
