Personal guides. Private chefs. Helicopter rides. Tensions are rising between Sherpas who do the hard work and the foreign climbers they escort to the top
A Nepali climber who summited Mount Everest several times has died on the peak, expedition organisers said Friday, the first fatality on the world's highest mountain this climbing season.
The 2021 Mount Everest climbing season will soon be underway, after a hiatus last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of March, Everest Base Camp in Nepal will once again be teeming with activity as expeditions settle in on the Khumbu Glacier, where they’ll spend several weeks making acclimatization rounds up and down the mountain before their final summit pushes in May. As usual, no one is allowed on the south side of the mountain without a permit from the Nepalese government, but this year the government has declared several additional rules, including one that’s particularly baffling: individuals may not take or share photographs of other climbers on the mountain without its permission.