Preparations are underway for the upcoming mountaineering season at Mt. Everest, including plans for a new, more difficult but safer route to the summit, while 288 climbers have already registered to take on the peak.
The arrangements are in part due to an avalanche last year that killed 16 sherpas, consequently canceling the remainder of the season’s climbing activity on the world’s highest peak.
The Nepal Tourism Board announced on Monday that the first climbers had already reached the base camp, at an altitude of about 5,000 meters (about 16,400 feet) above sea level.
Over the coming days, 31 registered groups will begin the first ascent of the season, while the numbers are expected to rise.
“We hope that the number of mountaineers increases as last year climbers had to abandon their plans to climb Everest and return,” tourism board official Gyanendra Shrestha told Efe, adding that the number of expeditions could go up to 41.
Climbers who had paid for their permits, with a price tag of about 10,000 euros ($11,000), to climb the mountain in 2014, but were made to cancel their plans, have been allowed by the Nepalese government to use the same permit by 2019.
Authorities have been preparing the new route since following what was the most tragic accident on Mt. Everest last year, circumventing the Khumbu Icefall where the avalanche occurred, according to the Nepalese press.
The government has also increased the number of medical personnel stationed on the mountain and set up a permanent office in the base camp to improve security and coordination.
Approximately 4,500 mountaineers have reached the summit of Mt. Everest since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Percival Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on March 29, 1953.
Source: laprensasa
