KATHMANDU: Tourist police in Kathmandu detained a South African national who allegedly traversed through a climbing route above Mt Everest base camp without obtaining a climbing permit from the government.

Dinesh Bhattarai, Director General at the Department of Tourism, confirmed that tourist police under the DoT detained Ryan Sean Davy, a climber from Johannesburg on Tuesday evening. Davy admitted that he made it to the Camp I for acclimatisation without a climbing permit, the Director General told THT Online.

After capturing him at a camp near Mt Pumori face two weeks ago, the base camp officials had instructed the climber to report to the DoT to get back his passport. “Davy was present at DoT on Tuesday afternoon to inquire about his passport which was confiscated by the base camp officials,” Bhattarai said, adding that he was then handed over to tourist police for further investigation.

The DoT issues Mt Everest permit to the foreign climbers charging US$ 11,000 each as royalty. According to Nepal’s Tourism Act, the government shall ban the climber for up to 10 years from visiting the country for mountaineering activities for the violation of country’s mountaineering regulation. “If any mountaineering expedition team or its member scales any Himalayan peak without obtaining a climbing permit, the offender will have to pay twice the highest royalty for scaling Mt Everest.”

Davy has also posted a note on his facebook page claiming that the system caught up with him and he was eventually captured there after two entries into the Icefall and managing an ascent of 24,000 ft. “Expedition companies have no time for wanna be Everesters with no money so someone turned me in. I was harassed at base camp to a point that I honestly thought I was going to get stoned to death right there. I'm not even exaggerating. I was treated like a murderer. A true testimony of how money has become more important than decency,” the facebook post read.

Earlier, DoT had launched an investigation against American explorer Sean Burch, who claims to have scaled 31 virgin mountains in Humla district in 21 days without obtaining a climbing permit from the government. Likewise, three Spanish climbers scaled Mt Karyolung (6,530m) and Mt Numbur (6,958m) without obtaining the permit from the DoT last autumn season. In the last spring season, a police couple from India doctored the photographs to obtain Mt Everest summit certificates.

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