Nepal Reduces Climbing Fees on Mount Everest

Filed in archive Mountain Climbing on August 22, 2007

Do you dream of summiting Mount Everest? But, don't think you can afford it? Well, think again.

In an effort to promote offseason climbing on Everest, the world's tallest peak, Nepal officials announced a plan to cut a significant amount off climbing fees. Climbing Everest during peak season (March through May) costs approximately $70,000. Officials are working on a 50% to 75% reduction during the autumn and winter. No one has attempted a winter bid since 1999.

At least 520 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest from Nepal and Tibet in this year's main climbing season, the highest number since the mountain was first scaled by New Zealander Sir edmund hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953.

Gurung said the royalty for the popular main climbing season would remain unchanged.

But experts said most mountaineers would still favor the spring season because of warmer weather and more daylight.

"In autumn you have a shorter period of possible good weather between the end of the monsoon rains (and) snowfall and the onset of very fierce jet stream winds on Mount Everest," said Elizabeth Hawley, a mountaineering historian.

"Almost nobody comes to Everest in winter because it is extremely cold and the daylight hours are much shorter."

The daytime temperature on top of Mount Everest even in the spring season can fall to between -25 and -30 degrees Celsius while it dips to as low as -50 degrees in winter, she said.

Climbers from a U.S. and Canadian team scaled Everest peak last autumn, but the last successful winter climb from the Nepali side was carried out by a Japanese team in 1993.

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