Nepal may require Everest climbers to be qualified before getting permit
MOUNTAINEERING -- Nepal is considering placing age and fitness restrictions on people who want to attempt climbing Mount Everest.
Mohan Sapkota, a spokesman for the Himalayan country’s ministry of tourism, said today that the government is mulling barring very young and very old climbers, as well as people with disabilities.
The new rules could also require that climbers attempting to scale the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) mountain have experience on medium-size peaks.
Sapkota said that Everest should be a place of adventure, “not death.”
Everest climbing permits earn Nepal, an impoverished nation, millions of dollars a year, but the government has come under criticism after a series of disasters over the last few years.
Last week Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki, who had lost nine fingers to frostbite, abandoned his fifth unsuccessful attempt to scale Everest.
