Last April, aspiring Thai mountain climber Kittiphong Prasert, 43, arrived in Nepal to join an expedition to climb Mount Everest. He spent his life savings on the expedition, shelling out almost $54,000 to a local expedition company before he arrived.
Prasert, who was fully vaccinated, felt strong on the weeks-long trek up the fabled Khumbu valley towards Base Camp. But by the time he finally arrived, he was starting to exhibit a mild fever and some trouble breathing. He had hoped that it was just a usual case of the ‘Khumbu cough,’ but then he tested positive for the coronavirus on a rapid antigen test. Within hours, he was evacuated to Kathmandu via helicopter.
After quarantining at a hotel for two nights, his symptoms worsened. He transferred to an international hospital where he spent the next week in a COVID ward. When he finally recovered and tested negative for the virus, Prasert asked his expedition organizer if it was possible to return to the mountain and climb. His request was quickly denied, citing that an incomplete recovery may put him at risk at altitude, and that the threat of the virus was getting worse on the mountain.
Prasert knew his climbing hopes were gone, and so was the massive amount of money that he had paid, essentially, for a few miserable hours at Base Camp. Despite his repeated requests, the agency would not refund his expedition expenses.
The Department of Tourism also has not pledged to waive the permit fee for COVID-affected climbers, as they have in seasons past.
“I feel heartbroken because my expedition was cancelled due to COVID,” said Prasert, “I am determined to try an Everest expedition again but I am not sure how to arrange the expedition expenses.”
His story is shared by scores of climbers who fell victim to a deadly COVID outbreak that ripped through the Everest region during the height of the climbing season. Many people blame the expedition operators and local government for not doing enough to stop the spread of the disease.
“If we send people up on the mountain, clients or sherpas or guides, that feel well and are tested negative, they can still be infected and get sick the next day, or after two days, in camp III and camp IV,” expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach wrote on Facebook after cancelling his team’s expedition, “Now we feel relieved. Devastated, but relieved. Because at least our expedition will not be responsible for covid cases high up on the mountain.
Norwegian climber Erlend Ness had dreams of completing the seven summits challenge by ascending the highest peak on each continent. But last year his dreams were crushed by the COVID pandemic on Everest. Like Prasert, Ness was evacuated from Base Camp by helicopter and spent 8 days in isolation at a hospital in Kathmandu. On his doctors’ advice he returned to Norway where he followed along as the rope fixing teams opened the route to the summit thousands of miles away, back in Nepal.
He too lost his entire expedition fee – around $40,000. In addition to this, he accrued $12,000 in hospital expenses in Kathmandu that weren’t covered by his insurance.
Overall, fewer than 50 percent of the 408 permitted climbers made it to the summit of Everest last year. This is significantly lower than the 70 percent success rate in a normal season. The discrepancy is undoubtedly due to climbers that spent their expedition in isolation in Kathmandu, and a few outfitters that cancelled their expeditions preemptively.
But in recent years it has become difficult anymore to understand what a normal year on Everest actually looks like.
In 2014, the Nepal Government extended permits for a year after climbing was cancelled due to a massive avalanche that killed 14 high-altitude workers. The following year, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered another avalanche that killed another 22 people. The permits were extended again. In 2020, the Everest season on Nepal’s southern climbing route was cancelled due to COVID, and no permits were issued.
When pressed, the Department of Tourism insists that a particularly bad spell of weather that triggered two major cyclones, and a general lack of competence amongst climbers was to blame for the low success rates.
The question remains who is to blame for the COVID outbreak in the Everest region, and who should shoulder responsibility for the climbers who had to abandon their expeditions at great personal cost. Expedition agencies, eager for more business next year, are mounting pressure on tourism authorities to extend expedition permits for COVID affected climbers once again.
But so far, expedition operators have been left in the dark. “My requests and mails are no longer replied to,” Lukas said. Furtenbach’s company was one of the first to entirely cancel their season citing safety concerns.
This may be due in part to the fact that the official government line remains that there wasn’t any COVID in Base Camp to begin with. At the very least, the authorities are struggling to provide a consistent message or to even acknowledge the multiple pleas to extend the permits.
When asked, Taranath Adhikari, the Director General of the Nepal Department of Tourism said he hasn’t received any complaints from agencies or climbers regarding the extension of climbing permits.
But he then added, “We may consider any requests that do come in, and might extend the climbing permits this year.”
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