NAMCHE BAZAAR, MARCH 1 The men who make Everest climbable have left Namche Bazaar. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) dispatched its Icefall Doctors team on Sunday, sending them up the trail to Everest Base Camp to begin preparations for the Spring 2026 climbing season, one that arrives against a backdrop of record royalty earnings, mounting environmental pressure and fresh scrutiny over safety on Nepal's high peaks. The team will undergo refresher training at Base Camp from March 5 to 10, conducted by instructors from the Khumbu Climbing Center. A traditional puja ceremony on March 16 will mark the official start of route-fixing through the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous stretch of the Everest ascent, where constantly shifting ice towers and deep crevasses between Base Camp and Camp II have claimed lives even in the best of seasons. Leading the operation is Ang Sarki Sherpa as chief leader, a veteran from Sewangma village in Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality who has worked as an Icefall Doctor since 2008. Dawa Jangbu Sherpa serves as team leader under Base Camp Manager Tshering Tenzing Sherpa. The eight-member team, Ang Sarki, Dawa Jangbu, Tendu Sherpa, Ngima Tenji Sherpa, Phura Chheten Sherpa, Dawa Chhirri Sherpa, Sonam Geljen Sherpa and Mingma Gyaljen Sherpa, will remain at SPCC's Base Camp office for the next three months to set up and maintain the Khumbu Icefall route and ensure safe passage for mountaineers attempting Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Nuptse. Black Yak is supplying equipment and technical gear this season. The Icefall Doctors' mandate runs from Base Camp to Camp II. Above that point, the Expedition Operators Association Nepal will lead rope-fixing operations using trained Nepali climbers, completing the full route that hundreds of expeditions will rely on this spring. Expedition operators estimate at least 400 foreign climbers will attempt Everest this spring. The Department of Tourism has set the climbing royalty for Everest via the normal route at USD 15,000 per foreign climber for the spring season. SPCC is taking a firmer line on human waste this spring, moving to strictly enforce the use of its own poop bags on every expedition. CEO Tshering Sherpa said the committee is in active consultation with operators and government officials on implementation. 'We are consulting with expedition operators and concerned officials on how the mandatory poop bag provision should be implemented to make Everest clean in the spring climbing season,' he said. The enforcement push sits within a broader national policy shift. The government approved a comprehensive cleanliness strategy for 2082–2086 last December, cleared by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on the day the new Tourism Minister, Anil Kumar Sinha, assumed office. The strategy acknowledges that waste, including human excreta, used oxygen cylinders, packaging and discarded climbing equipment, has built up around base camps and higher camps over the years, causing long-term environmental damage. 'Previously, climbers paid little attention to waste management, often discarding used materials along the climbing routes,' the strategy noted, adding that many climbers still lack the knowledge to manage waste responsibly and that no unified accountability system currently exists. The season's environmental agenda extends well beyond the poop bag rule. SPCC and WWF Nepal have launched Swachya Sagarmatha: Sustainable Waste Management for Clean Himalaya, a three-year project backed by Thomas L. Kempner Jr. Foundation with a budget of Rs 80 million. The initiative covers the full trekking corridor from Lukla to Gorakshep, targeting waste segregation, recycling infrastructure, electronic waste management and material recovery across around 2,000 households at elevations between 2,800 and 5,000 metres. 'For over three decades, SPCC has been at the forefront of waste management in the Everest region. But the scale and complexity of waste is growing rapidly,' Sherpa said. Tourist arrivals to the Everest region have risen from around 20,000 in 1998 to over 55,000 in 2024, pushing waste volumes well beyond what informal systems can absorb. SPCC has also signed an agreement with Leave No Trace Korea to provide environmental training to climbers and field staff. A one-day session recently held in Lukla brought together 22 participants, including Icefall Doctors, for instruction on minimising environmental impact at altitude. Established in 1993 by the Sherpa community, SPCC has been responsible for fixing and maintaining the Khumbu Icefall route every season since 1997, when the Department of Tourism formally entrusted the task to the organisation. The season opens on the back of a record year for Nepal's mountaineering economy. Climbing royalties reached Rs 918 million in fiscal year 2081/82, a 19.08 per cent increase from the previous year. Everest alone generated nearly 79 per cent of that total, accounting for 18.4 per cent of all permits issued. Nepal welcomed 2,548 climbers from 87 countries across 303 expedition teams, up from 2,372 the previous year. The government has also opened 57 additional peaks, raising the total of climbable mountains to 461. But the growth in numbers has come with a cost. According to department records, 28 climbers died and two went missing across the 2024 and 2025 climbing seasons. Nineteen fatalities were recorded in Spring 2024 alone, including two Mongolian climbers on Everest on May 13, and on May 21, British climber Daniel Paul Paterson and his Nepali guide Pas Tenji Sherpa - two men from different continents who met the same end on the same day. Spring 2025 claimed nine more lives on peaks including Ama Dablam, Makalu and Kanchenjunga. Spring is Nepal's primary climbing season, with expeditions targeting Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Kanchenjunga and Nuptse, among others.