Kathmandu, June 15

With the closure of the climbing season, at least 456 climbers, including 199 foreigners, stood atop Mt Everest from Nepal side while the world’s highest mountain also recorded five deaths this spring.

Data compiled by the Department of Tourism states that 199 foreigners from 29 countries and 257 Nepali climbers successfully scaled Mt Everest after nine rope-fixing Sherpas first stood atop the mountain on May 11.

DoT had issued climbing permits to 289 expedition members, along with 457 high-altitude workers representing 34 teams in the season.

Two Indian climbers - Balkar Singh, 19, and Stanzin Laskit, 18, were the youngest male and female summiteers this season, respectively, the DoT data shows. Youngho Heo, 62, from South Korea and New Zealander Lydia Margarate Bradey, 55, became the season’s oldest summiteers in male and female categories, respectively.

There were 45 female climbers who made it to the summit while Maya Sherpa became the only woman summiteer of the season from Nepal.

“The season also saw the longest summit window (May 11-16 and May 19-23) while all expeditions except a team of two Slovakians have their members on top of the summit,” DoT’s official Gyanendra Shrestha said.

On May 19, as many as 209 climbers scaled the mountain on a single day, he added. According to him, DoT collected Rs 177 million as Everest royalty after 129 expedition members used their extended permits of 2014/15.

In figures

Age

Summiters

10-19

20

20-29

129

30-39

157

40-49

103

50-59

44

60-69

3

TOTAL

456

Country

Climbers

Summiters

Nepal

449

258

India

64

52

US

58

39

China

20

18

UK

29

15

Australia

15

11

Others

111

63

TOTAL

746

456

It was a successful season for the mountaineering fraternity with over 60 per cent success, as back-to-back disasters in the last two years had no impact on climber count, Damber Parajuli, President of Expedition Operators Association of Nepal said, adding that the success rate on Mt Everest was also quite impressive.

Saying that there was an unvoiced pressure on operators to have a successful season, owner of the Himalayan Experience Russell Brice understood that Everest expeditions were still the flagship of Nepal tourist industry as this was what the international media focus on.

So to have a successful season on Everest also gives confidence to trekkers to also return to Nepal in the future, he told this daily.

“It is a pity that the latter part of the season saw so many fatalities as this unfortunately detracted from the early success. If we had a season with no deaths then the season would have had more positive impact,” Brice, who has also been leading expeditions since 1974 in Nepal, added.

The season witnessed the death of five climbers including three from India above higher camps.

The Everest/ER which runs an aid-post at Everest base camp stated that it saw nearly 300 patients including 65 per cent Nepalis followed by patients from US, India and UK, while 15 per cent of them requiring evacuation after stabilisation.

“The vast majority of visits were related to cough (27%) with gastrointestinal complaints coming in a close second.”

SPRING 2016 EVEREST SUMMIT DETAILS

Name of Expedition

Team Leader

Handling Agency

Members

High Altitude Workers

Total

1.

2016 IMG Everest Expedition I

Mr. Justin Reese Merle

Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd

11

12

23

2.

2016 IMG Everest Expedition II

Mr. Jonathan Flyod Schrock

Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd

4

5

9

3.

2016 IMG Everest Expedition III

Mr. Joshua Tyler Mc Dowell

Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd

5

10

15

4.

Jagged Globe Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. David William Hamilton

Summit Nepal Trekking Pvt. Ltd.

4

5

9

5.

H.G. Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Timothy John Mosedale

Himalayan Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd.

7

7

14

6.

Himalayan Experience Everest-2016

Mr. Richard Grant Hunter

Mountain Experience Pvt. Ltd.

7

7

14

7.

AH Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Lars Daniel Sebastian Aakerman

Ascent Himalayas Treks & Expedition Pvt. Ltd.

6

10

16

8.

HAD International Everest Expedition Spring- 2016

Mr. Paul Frank Giorgio

High Altitude Dreams Pvt. Ltd.

4

3

7

9.

Altitude Junkies Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Philip James Crampton

Expedition Himalaya. com Pvt. Ltd.

9

19

28

10.

Armed Force Everest Expedition UAE

Mr. John Doyle

Himalayan Holidays Trekking P. Ltd.

8

8

16

11.

Desert Troop : Operation Everest

Mr. David Mark Rasmussen

Himalayan Holidays Trekking P. Ltd.

1

2

3

12.

Adventure Globe Mt. Everest Expedition - 2016

Mr. Ronald Kevin Muhl

Dream Himalaya Adventures Pvt. Ltd.

7

8

15

13.

AAI-Everest Expedition-2016

Mr. Benjamin Mason Jones

Shangri-la Nepal Trek Pvt. Ltd.

3

2

5

14.

KKC Everest 2016

Mr. Kevin John Farebrother

Senge Adventures Pvt.Ltd.

2

1

3

15.

SNT- Everest Expedition - 2016

Mr. James Winfield Lumberg

Shangri-la Nepal Trek Pvt. Ltd.

2

02

16.

Indian Army Everest MASSIF Expedition 2016

Mr. Ranveer Singh Jamwal

Arun Treks and Expedition P. Ltd

14

14

28

17.

Furtenbach Adventure Mount Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Lukas Furtenbach

Iceland Trekking and Expedition Pvt. Ltd

6

13

19

18.

Adventure Consultants Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Michael John Roberts

Himalayan Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd.

8

16

24

19.

NCC Girls (India) Everest Expedition - 2016 A

Mr. Gaurav Karki

Himalayan Expeditions P. Ltd

12

6

18

20.

NCC Girls (India) Everest Expedition - 2016 B

Mr. Vishal Ahlawat

Himalayan Expeditions P. Ltd

4

6

10

21.

Madison Mountaineering Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Garrett Christian Madison

Alpine Everest Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd.

10

18

28

22.

SST Int'l Everest Expedition 2016 Spring

Mr. Eduardo Carlos Santalena

Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd.

13

26

39

23.

ECO-EVEREST EXPEDITION 2016 SPRING

Mr. David Liano Gonzalez

Asian Trekking P. Ltd

6

12

18

24.

Satori Everest Expedition South - Spring 2016

Mr. Jitesh Popatlal Mody

Satori Adventure P.Ltd.

6

8

14

25.

Assam Mt. Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Manash Barooah

Arun Treks and Expedition P. Ltd

3

3

6

26.

2016 Kyungil University Alpine Club Everest Expedition

Mr. Jinchol Cha

Trekking Camp Nepal Pvt. Ltd.

3

4

7

27.

SummitClimb Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Daniel Lee Mazur

Everest Parivar Expedition Pvt Ltd.

4

3

7

28.

Adventure Guide Mt. Everest 2016

Mr. Kenji Kondo

Cosmo Trek Pvt. Ltd.

4

4

8

29.

Everest Hard Way Utmost Expedition

Mr. Vladimir Strba

Utmost Adventure Trekking Pvt. Ltd.

00

30.

SST Everest Expedition 2016 Spring

Mr. Naba kumar Phukon

Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd.

11

11

22

31.

SST Chinese Everest Expedition 2016 Spring

Mr. Yujiang Song

Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd.

12

11

23

32.

High Adventure Expedition Spring 2016

Mr. Hugo David Searle

Happy Feet Mountaineers Pvt. Ltd

1

1

33.

Anish Messenger of Peace to Mt. Everest

Mr. Anish Luitel

Asian Trekking P. Ltd

1

01

34.

Makalu Adventure Everest Expedition 2016

Mr. Dinesh Chandrakant Rathod

Makalu Adventure Pvt. Ltd.

2

2

4

TOTAL

199

257

456