KATHMANDU: Prince of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Thani and his team boarded their flight with Kailash Helicopter to Lukla for an expedition of Mt Amadablam. The flight is under the command of Captain Ashish Sherchan, according Kailash Helicopter Pvt Ltd.

After Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Municipality allowed flights for tourists to the Everest region, Himalayan Guides decided to run a high profile expedition on Mt Amadablam with climbers including Qatar Prince Al Thani this season, HG’s Managing Director Iswari Paudel said.

The team left for Lukla to begin climbing activities, he added.

Al Thani, first Qatari to scale all seven summits, had also scaled Mt Everest on May 22, 2013, in part to raise US dollar 1 million for ROTA’s education projects in Nepal. Al Thani also belongs to the Sharjah royal family by his paternal grandmother – sister of the current Emir of Sharjah.

“Himalayan Guides will have more than 12 members in the expedition team,” he said. Among them, Kenton Cool has already climbed Mt Everest for the 14th time breaking his own British record for the most summits of the world’s highest peak while Garrett Madison, owner of Madison Mountaineering has also climbed Mt Everest 10 times. British climber and six-time Everest summiteer Tim Mosedale and Jon Gupta, owner of Mountain Expeditions Worldwide High-Altitude Guide in UK will also be attempting climb Mt Amadablam, according to Poudel.

Seven Summit Treks also informed that it would also be running an expedition to Amadablam this season. “There will be more than 15 members from different countries who will be attempting to climb Amadablam,” Mingma Sherpa, Chairman at Seven Summit Treks, said.