Peak climbing season, 2025

Nepal expects a surge in mountaineering expeditions on Mt Everest this spring before fees are hiked to climb the world’s highest mountain.

The number of tourists and mountaineers coming to Nepal has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, mostly because of backlog and also since climbing from the north face of the mountain in Tibet was closed till last year, and China only issues permits for 300 climbers each season from its side of the mountain.

In 2019, Mt Everest had a record 877 summits, with 661 from Nepal and 216 from China. Last year, there were 861 successful climbs, with 787 from Nepal and 74 from the north. The number of summits from the Nepal side saw an increase of over 100.

There may be a surge in Spring 2025 given that it is the last climbing season before the Everest permit is increased from $11,000 to $15,000 in September. The fee increase is an attempt to reduce overcrowding on Everest, where traffic jams near the summit have given mountaineering a bad press worldwide.

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However, such is the draw to climb the world’s highest mountain that a $4,000 hike in permits may not be much of a deterrent. Besides the fee, each climber spends anywhere up to $100,000 for logistics, equipment and hiring high altitude guides if they go through foreign operators. It is about half that if expeditions are handled by Nepal-based companies.

Nepal is trying to balance the negative publicity about overcrowding and garbage on Everest with the need to maximise revenue from the mountain and is reluctant to have new rules and fees that would reduce expedition numbers.

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“The government of Nepal is showing that it values money over lives,” Alan Arnette, an Everest summiteer and blogger, told Nepali Times from Colorado.

Mountaineering was always dangerous, and it was the adventure that was the challenge. But the hazards have risen in recent years because climate breakdown has increased the frequency of avalanches, and made climbing more difficult as ice slopes turn into rock faces. Traffic jams above the death zone at 8,000m of Himalayan peaks have made climbing even more dangerous.

An additional factor is over-commercialisation of mountaineering in which operators cash in on global demand from climbers who have limited expertise in technical climbing, or cannot acclimatise. There were a record 18 fatalities on Everest in 2023, and eight in 2024.

Besides the fee increase, Nepal has also introduced rules to prohibit solo expeditions and to require all climbers to sew GPS chips into their jackets to track their location.

The ban on solo climbing has always been there since all mountaineers are required to hire guides. Of the 787 Everest summits from the Nepal side last year as many as 468 were hired guides and 319 their clients.

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The rule on GPS sensors was announced in February 2024, and although it was a good idea, it was never implemented. Besides, the ‘chips’ turned out to be radar reflectors used to locate climbers buried by avalanches. In one case, an expedition company said it could not track a missing climber because he did not have a tracker.

“These rules exist only on paper,” says Behrouz Moghaddasi at White Mountain Rescue Training Institute who has over 20 years of experience in search and rescue, and has worked in the Himalaya since 2016. “The government has no contingency plan in the case of a major accident.” 

Moghaddasi says that given the amount the government is collecting through permits from Everest and other Khumbu mountains, it should shoulder more responsibility. “In fact private companies are getting better at rescue operations, with little support from the government,” he says.

The need to increase revenue was also perhaps what led the government last month to officially recognise six more peaks above 8,000m: four in the Kanchenjunga massif and two near Lhotse. The announcement was widely ridiculed in international mountaineering circles since it went against accepted criteria for ‘topographic prominence’. A peak has to be at least 300m higher than the lowest point on a connecting ridge otherwise it is considered a sub-peak of the main summit.

The lack of coordination between different government agencies and ad hoc approach was most evident in the sudden on-again-off-again ban on helicopter flights in the Everest region last month that created a lot of confusion. Helicopters are now flying again.

There are some ways to reduce fatalities and similar to measures taken in the Alps. Climbers are already required to have summited a peak over 7,000m before they attempt Everest, but safety could be increased if guides need to be internationally certified, and establishing search and rescue resources at Base Camp and Camp 2.

Even if these government measures are strictly implemented, clients and guides sometimes take unnecessary risks on mountains. Clients invest vast sums for their climbs and there is pressure to bag the peak even if the guide tells them it is too dangerous. Sometimes guides are ignored by determined clients, especially when there is a record or competition involved.

Many recent deaths would be preventable if guides turned clients back at the first sign of altitude sickness, or if teams followed basic avalanche hygiene. Another culprit is itineraries that are too lean, a result of companies competing to give clients the shortest trip possible to the summit and back. 

“Every climber, solo or otherwise, should take Everest seriously and not expect to rely on any other expeditions,” says journalist and climber Billi Bierling of the Himalayan Database in Kathmandu. 

Global warming trends are making climbing more dangerous, for example on the South Col route and Icefall on Everest, but it means climbing seasons should also be recalibrated. For example, spring expeditions could start earlier in March, and end later in June. The arrival of the monsoon has shifted and now usually breaks over Nepal in late June.

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