Nepali officials say that starting next year, authorities will for the first time station permanent personnel at the Everest Base Camp to help coordinate emergency responses while further tightening regulations on mountaineering activities, enforcing stricter certifications, and enhancing environmental protection efforts.
Stricter Certification Rules
Purna Chandra Bhattarai, an official from Nepal’s tourism department in charge of mountaineering affairs, told the BBC on the 2nd that given the difficulty of effectively regulating mountaineering activities from the capital Kathmandu, “it is necessary to establish a permanent government office at the Everest Base Camp… to standardize climbing activities.”
Under current rules, each climbing team must be accompanied by a government employee responsible for coordination during the ascent. However, these coordinators usually do not leave Kathmandu and are unable to oversee activities on-site, drawing widespread criticism for their limited role.
“Even when coordinators occasionally visit the base camp, they are only accountable to the climbing team and not to the (government) system,” Bhattarai said. When the climbing season begins next spring, staff from the tourism department’s “Integrated Service Center” will be stationed permanently at the Everest Base Camp to provide communication and safety-related services, as well as to check climbing permits and certify whether climbers have successfully reached the summit.
“Until now, news of whether someone has successfully summited takes some time to reach our office in Kathmandu, while others may have already learned about it from the media,” Bhattarai said. “That situation will change.”
Preventing ‘Stunt Climbing’
According to Bhattarai, tightening regulations on mountaineering is also aimed at addressing the recent trend of “stunt climbing.”
Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, explained that many climbers previously did not report plans to attempt any “record-breaking” feats to the authorities but only made such claims public after actually reaching the summit.
“These days, we’re seeing more and more people trying to set bizarre records, such as doing handstands or stripping naked after reaching the top of Everest,” he said. “These actions are not in line with the image of Everest as a global icon.”
Sherpa said that under the new rules, climbers must inform authorities of their plans in advance, “and the authorities will notify climbers whether their planned record attempts comply with government regulations.”
Bhattarai, the tourism department official, said that with government officials physically present to supervise, “the message that violations will be punished becomes much clearer.”
A Daunting Task
In recent years, the increasing frequency of global mountaineers reaching the summit of Everest has brought significant tourism revenue to Nepali authorities, but it has also created some negative impacts, such as waste issues and fights between climbers and guides.
After the new rules take effect, authorities will also prioritize managing waste on Everest. Officials stationed at the base will have the authority to handle disputes on-site.
However, some mountaineering organizers believe that although the authorities are committed to on-site supervision of climbing activities, implementation faces significant challenges.
“If climbers still break the rules,” mountaineer Zimba Yangbu said, “it will be difficult for the authorities to stop them, because officials at the base camp can’t possibly accompany every climber all the way to the summit of Everest.”
Another mountaineering enthusiast told the BBC that the idea of regulating climbers at the Everest Base Camp is good, but only if “the officials who exercise this authority are themselves properly supervised.”