Mount Everest: Nepal hits climbers with high permit fees

Mountaineering experts often criticize the Nepalese government for allowing too many climbers on Everest, however, with around 300 permits to the mountain issued per year.

It is unclear if the price hike, which has been discussed since last year, will slow demand.

“Rotility (permit fee) has not been reviewed for a long time,” Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, told Reuters. “We have updated them now.”

The regime did not specify how the additional revenue would be used.

In April 2024, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to limit the number of mountaineering permits issued for Everest and other peaks, saying that the mountain’s capacity “must be respected”.

The initial order does not specify a maximum amount, though.

Amid concerns about overcrowding on Everest and climbers queuing in dangerous conditions to reach the summit, the Nepalese army in 2019 began carrying out an annual cleanup of the mountain, which is often described as the world’s highest garbage dump.

In that time at least five cleanups have collected 119 tons of garbage, 14 human corpses and several skeletons, according to the army – but it is estimated that 200 more bodies remain on the mountain.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest.