Although some contender seeks to remove the crownEverest remains the mountaineer Grand Prix. Hundreds of people die every year During the journey to the top and arriving, it ensures personal glory and a certificate. So important is that There are those who lie about their feat. It is evident that Everest is a tourism monsterand that has led Nepal to take a radical solution: let out other peaks of the Himalayas free of charge.
It won’t be so easy.
Pressure. Getting to the top of Everest is not simple. Sample of difficulty are the bodies that accumulate In its corners, but mountaineering, and specifically Activity at Everestremains one of the heavyweights of the Nepali economy. It is estimated that, in 2024, of the 5.9 million dollars that the country obtained directly from the climbing permits to its peaks, more than 75% were thanks to Everest. And we would have to add expenses such as stays, food and other activities related to that activity.
The problem is that it is saturatedwhich led the government to touch prices. The rates to undertake the adventure will rise 36%, from $ 11,000 to 15,000 to upload the mountain in the busiest months. And, from September to November and from December to February, when the influx is lower, the rates will be placed at $ 7,500 and $ 3,750, starting from September 1 of this year.
The Himalayas opens from par. Money is not the only thing that will need those who want to crown the top: there is also debate about the need to have made a mountain of more than 7,000 meters from the country itself before climbing Everest. And there the measure that adopted from Katmandú a few weeks ago comes into play. On July 17, and during the next two climbing seasons, Nepal opened For the doors of almost a hundred mountains.
Specifically97 located in the westernmost regions of the country. 77 Cumbres are in the province of Karnali and the remaining 20 in Sudurpaschim, and are not negligible picos because, after all, Nepal has eight of the ten highest mountains in the world:
- Saipal – 7,030 meters.
- API West – 7,076 meters.
- API – 7,132 meters
Tourists, welcome (please). If we look at the figures, this measure makes all the meaning of the world for two reasons. The first and most obvious, decongesting Everest, being a huge logistics challenge to have to manage that number of visitors. The second, distribute a little tourism that, currently, are concentrated both in Everest and other central summits.
The Government wants to arouse interest in little visited tops or even virgins. And if before we talked about more than 75% of the money that the climbing permits leave in Nepal come from activities at Everest, we must specify something more: in 2024 421 permits were issued to climb Everest, but there were only 68 mountaineers that They tried Go up at 97 summits that will now be free.
Challenges beyond the mountain. Giving that incentive for the adventurers to explore other areas of the country, they will not only decongest their great peak, but also give an oxygen ball to more remote areas, but with equally impressive peaks. Now, the great challenge will be to convince climbers to go to those areas.
Karnali and Sudurpaschim are precisely the poorest and least developed regions of Nepal. The services are limited, the scarce infrastructure and are not the most prepared areas to manage tourists efficiently, something that also moves those possible visitors away. And the big problem is that, as they point out in BBCit is not clear how local communities would face the avalanche of climbers or, even, if the authorities have plans to improve infrastructure or connection with these more remote areas.
Because climbing those 7,000 -meter peaks can be free now, but if arriving is an adventure even greater than crowning the top, the climbers will continue to go to the area that is prepared: that of Everest.
Image | Sebastian Pena Lambarri
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