27 May 2019
Around 600 mountaineers have climbed Mount Everest this season as the expedition during spring time reached almost to its end.
Meera Acharya, director at DoT, said that around 600 climbers were reported to have reached the summit of Everest this spring.
She, however, said that it was not the official data. The official data will come after the completion of debriefing of expedition, she added.
This year, the expedition on Everest and other three mountains measuring more than 8,000 metres, including Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu had begun from May 14.
The Everest expedition had come to a complete halt on May 17, 18 and 19 due to bad weather in the mountain.
According to liaison officer of the government and expedition agencies, around 16 human casualties, 13 deaths and three disappearances, have been reported in different mountains this season, Acharya said.
Of them, eight casualties- seven deaths and one disappearance- were reported in Everest alone, she added.
Meanwhile issuing a press statement, the DoT has clarified that the death in Everest was not solely due to the traffic congestion in the Everest Route seen mainly on May 22 and 23.
The DoT said that pressure of climbers was noticed on May 22 and 23, as climbers scheduled to climb on May 21 had to wait for other days due to bad weather.
But the cause behind the death was not only due to the traffic congestion as reported by some media, it stated.
A total of 381 climbers belonging to 44 expedition teams had received permit from the DoT to climb Mt. Everest this spring season. Of them, 14 are Nepali nationals.
In spring of 2018, a total of 346 mountaineers of 38 expedition teams were granted permission to scale the highest peak. Spring is the main season to climb Mt. Everest and other peaks of Nepal.
Altogether, a total of 895 climbers belonging to 116 expedition teams had received permission to climb different 32 peaks including Mt Everest this spring.
