Source: Radio New Zealand
Nepal’s government is looking at rules to ensure that only experienced climbers can climb Mount Everest. credit: Nirmal Purja
A Wanaka-based adventure consultant says she agrees that anyone wanting to climb Mount Everest should have previously summited a 7000 metre high mountain at least once.
Nepal’s government is considering the new rule that would require climbers to have previously summited a 7000m high mountain in Nepal before attempting Everest which is 8848m high.
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people known to reach Everest’s summit in 1953.
But recently the mountain has been been in the spotlight over increasing pollution with discarded climbing gear, tents, oxygen canisters and human waste.
And the traffic jams with climbers literally nose to tail at dangerous pinch points as more people attempt Everest.
Wanaka-based Adventure Consultants takes climbers up Everest and its general manager Caroline Ogle said they had strict rules around who they took to Everest but there was a real mix of people on the mountain.
She said there were some operators, such as hers, which had been on the mountain for many years and ran well-resourced expeditions ensuring that only experienced climbers came onto Everest.
“Unfortunately there are a lot of teams that are a) quite large in size and b) their climbers don’t have necessary experience before heading onto the mountain and those factors combined can mean that people do get into trouble and that’s what you end up seeing in the headlines.”
Adventure Consultants advised anyone who wanted to climb Everest to follow a programme which started with a mountaineering course and to ensure they had a lot of climbing experience either in New Zealand, the European mountains or in the United States, she said.
“So building up experience on multiple 6000 to 7000m peaks and ideally another 8000m peak before going on to Everest.”
But often the climbers do not want to put in the preparation, she said.
“And we often see them turning up on other climbing teams who are just happy to accept their money for a place on their expeditions.”
A lot of people including influencers have been documenting their Everest trips on social media in the last few years with some willing to put in the work and some less so, she said.
Ogle said she agreed that climbers wanting to take on Everest should have climbed a 7000 metre peak at least once.
“But the key caveat here is the proposed regulations require climbers to have climbed that 7000m peak in Nepal, where as lots of climbers who are already on their Everest pathways, they may have climbed a 7000m peak in South America or Kyrgyzstan or even 7000m peaks in Tibet or Pakistan – but under these proposed regulations those would not be applicable.”
That requirement could set back climbers who were wanting to take on Everest and had already climbed a 7000m peak, but just not in Nepal, she said.
“Summiting Everest (is) definitely not a walk in the park, it’s an extremely serious and dangerous mountain and you need to have experience before doing that.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
