Kathmandu, April 16

A total of 743 mountaineers have received climbing permits to scale 23 mountains this spring season, an increase of 45 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year, when 512 climbers had received permits to scale 16 mountains.

The Department of Tourism has collected more than Rs 524 million in royalties this year compared to the collection of Rs 451 million in the previous year.

As many as 584 male and 159 female climbers from 75 countries, including Nepal, are set to scale various mountains across the country this spring season.

Of the total royalties, Rs 442 million was collected from issuing permits to Mt Sagarmatha alone.

As of today, the DoT had issued 319 permits for Mt Sagarmatha (8,848.86 metres); 61 for Mt Lhotse (8,516 metres); 54 for Mt Annapurna 1 (8,091 metres); 49 for Mt Amadablam (6,814 metres); 42 each for Mt Makalu (8,463 metres) and Kanchenjunga (Main) (8,586 metres) respectively; 30 for Mt Dhaulagiri (8,167 metres); 25 for Mt Nuptse (7,855) metres); 23 for Thorong Peak (6,144 metres); 15 for Mt Manaslu (8,163 metres); 12 each for Himlung Himal (7,126 metres) and Mt Pumori (7,138 metres); eight for Jarkya Peak (6,473 metres); seven for Khatung Khang (6,848 metres); six each for Pangri Goldumba (6,620 metres) and Thapa peak (6,012 metres); four each for Mt Ganchenpo (6,378 metres), and Kabru (7,318 metres), and two each for Surma-Sarovar North (6,523 metres), Peak 6 (6,758 metres) and Tengi Ragi Tau (6,938 metres).

Of the total climbers, 98 climbers are from the US; 63 from India; 58 from China; 42 each from Nepal and Russia; 36 from Canada; 33 each from France, Japan and UK; 24 from Australia; 16 from Poland; 15 each from South Korea and Germany; 14 from Switzerland; 12 from Spain; nine each from Austria, Brazil, Singapore and Ukraine; eight from Norway; seven from Romania, Netherlands, and Czech Republic, among others. Imagine Nepal Treks has been assigned to fix summit routes on Mt Everest and Mt Lhotse this season.

Also, three Sherpas who went missing in the icefall region while transporting equipment from the Everest Base Camp to Camp 1 on Wednesday morning have been presumed dead after recovery operations were deemed impossible.

'We were able to locate the area but it was not possible to bring them back home. A huge block of ice had collapsed and buried them underneath. It would take a few more lives to dig my brothers out so we had to leave their bodies underneath the ice,' Mingma G, managing director of Imagine Nepal, had posted on his Facebook page.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 17, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.