Nepal sharply increases permit fee for Everest climbers

Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by more than 35%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials said.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by more than 35%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials said Wednesday.

Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers is a key source of revenue and employment for the cash-strapped nation, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.

A permit to climb the 29,032-foot Mount Everest will cost $15,000, said Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, announcing a 36% rise in the $11,000 fee that has been in place for nearly a decade.

“The royalty (permit fees) had not been reviewed for a long time. We have updated them now,” Regmi told Reuters.

The new rate will come into effect starting in September and apply for the popular April-May climbing season along the standard South East Ridge, or South Col route, pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nepal-sharply-increases-permit-fee-everest-climbers-rcna188891

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