Everest: Fewer Climbers = Bigger Fees?

© The Bantam
This week China announced that it may limit the number of tourists on and around Mt. Everest next year, ostensibly for environmental reasons. "We need to limit the number of people who want to climb Mt. Everest, who exert a negative impact on the environment," Zhang Yongze, the director of Tibet's Bureau of Environmental Protection, said to China's Xinhua news agency. "We will also need to strengthen management of commercial activities involving (the mountain). We don't want so many visitors to disturb the peak."

...a more likely explanation for limiting the number of visitors is continuing concern about adverse publicity at a time of Tibetan unrest.

Another possible explanation for restricting numbers on Everest: supply and demand. The Chinese may be hoping to raise peak fees again by limiting the number of permits. Currently, peak fees on Everest are much higher on the Nepali side of the mountain. In Tibet the fee was just $4,900 per person in 2007, the last time the mountain was open. But the fee jumped more than 60 percent that year.

Read more on Dougald MacDonald's Blog: The Mountain World

Discovery Channel News Item: Limit on Everest


This post has been read 27,638 times

Return to Latest News


26 Jun, 2008
Will that not mean that more people try to climb from the Nepal side and just make the existing problems there even worse?
26 Jun, 2008
This doesn't make sense: "Another possible explanation for restricting numbers on Everest: supply and demand. The Chinese may be hoping to raise peak fees again by limiting the number of permits." You mean the Chinese may limit the number of permits and raise the cost of the peak fee? I'm sure the peak fees will go up, whether or not they'll actually restrict the number of climbers will remain to be seen!
26 Jun, 2008
China!!!? China of all freaking places wants to limit usage because of environmental reasons? Like they give a crap about the environment...please.
Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email