EVEREST 2008: Nepal Slams the Door–Follows Tibet with Everest Closure

Earlier this week Chinese officials sent out a memo to climbers wanting to attempt Mt. Everest this season. That memo effectively shut down any prospects of teams trying to summit from the northern Tibetan side of Mt. Everest. Today Nepal has followed suit with their own restrictions.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that there had been a special meeting of Nepal’s Mountaineering Association to discuss what was currently taking place with China on the North side. Word had trickled down that China had proposed an offer to limit climbers from Nepal, after effectively closing off climbers from the Tibet side of Mt. Everest earlier in the week.

Nepal has decided on a somewhat differing approach to the situation. Rather than closing off the South Col of Everest completely to climbers, Nepal has decided to allow the expeditions to go on, but force the climbers to stay at basecamp for a 10 day period (May 1-10) allowing China the opportunity to run the Olympic Torch up Mt. Everest without distraction of who or what they would find on top of the world’s tallest peak.

Many of the reasonings behind the closure of Mt. Everest this year seem to stem from two areas. The first, as being told by China, Tibet, and Nepal-is an overcrowding issue. Many people believe this to be a bogus front and attribute China’s ambitions to close Mt. Everest on the underlying problem of tibetan protests.

China, expecting the world to be watching as they carry the torch to the highest peak on the planet, simply does not want this to become a Chinese-Tibetan cry for freedom.

So what can Everest expeditioners look forward to this year? From the North, not much. No expeditions are allowed on the northern side until the Olympic Torch run has been made. China has given a date of May 10th. Some expeditions are planning on trying to acclimate on other nearby peaks, then make a run after the deadline if weather (and China) permits–

From the South, it will be business as usual. Teams can gather at basecamp, acclimate, prepare for a summit push–then wait 10 days at basecamp (which may have a toll on their acclimatization process) then head up.

In previous years, Everest has been summited anywhere from the last week of April to the first week of June. So what happens if teams make a run BEFORE May 1st? Nothing has been mentioned about that, but usually teams are to busy with their acclimatization. I am sure most will be pushing for that May 10th window. That leaves roughly a two week period for approximately 900 climbers to go up, then back down Mt. Everest.

If teams try to push the envelope and wait till the end of May, first week of June, their is always the prospect of the Khumbu Icefalls melting. This area, which has to be traversed to get to Camp 1, is well known in Everest history as the most dangerous place on the mountain. More deaths have occured in this one area of the mountain than on any other area. Climbers are expected to walk over a set (20-50) of fixed ladders over crevasses that can be many hundreds of feet deep. If the khumbu icefalls begin to melt, the ladders could begin to fall making any forward or backward progress highly unlikely.

Other Notes of Interest:

China’s recent influence in Nepal:

“Witnesses alleged that policemen who broke up a demonstration on Monday by Tibetans in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, were directed by Chinese embassy officials. A further protest was broken up yesterday, with 12 monks suffering minor injuries.

This follows news that China recently sent Nepal a package worth $120 million Euro to help the struggling country build two dams in the region.

“Everest climbers will be denied access to the Himalayas from May 1 to May 10, say agency reports.

This note is coming by way of an article in NepalNews. The article goes into no further explaination, but to me it would seem like Nepal is planning on not even allowing climbers into basecamp. Not sure on this though, and will have to look into it a bit more.

“Update 8.30am America: Where we stand : Everest is closed on both sides until after May 10th as we stand today. Heavy and heated negotiations on the Nepal side are ongoing on a daily basis in Nepal to reopen the mountain with the GOAL of being able to go to Base camp and a little further up before May 10th. There is a real possibility Everest in Nepal will close totally for the season. Some would say it already has been closed and that the negotiations are to reopen the mountain.

The above report is coming from EverestNews

Alan Arnette, who was originally planning on a summit push on the Northern Tibetan side, has updated his site a couple of times concerning the general confusion surrounding these areas in the Mt. Everest region. Alan was, and still is planning on being on Mt. Everest. His is climbing for the CURE ALZHEIMERS FUND.

Alan has been training for Everest going on a year now, climbing some of the highest peaks in the world in preparation. From Alan Arnette:

“While myself and other climbers are anxious about our opportunity to
climb Mt. everest, the Tibetans and Sherpas are fearful for their
future. A sense of perspective is important at times like this.

I remain optimistic that a compromise will be reached on both
climbing routes that will allow the Chinese to accomplish their goal,
the Tibetans and Sherpas to have work and for climbers to climb.

At this point, Alan is still planning on leaving in 3 weeks and hoping for the best. I am hoping to get an interview with Alan before he leaves in the days ahead.

Kraig, who runs The Adventure Blog has put up an interesting post concerning the latest news on Everest, as well as his thoughts on the situation.

Jake Norton, a member of the team that helped find George Mallory’s body on Everest and who runs the fabulous MountainWorld blog, has put up a couple of posts on his own thoughts:

“In the immediate timeframe, it is climbers, expeditions, and support teams who will suffer. Expedition leaders like Russel Brice - who brings expeditions to the Tibetan side of Everest every year - and Eric Simonson, who has been frantically reorganizing an Everest Basecamp trek he had booked. The clients of these leaders, who have planned and paid for their trips and alotted the time to do them, will also be left out in the cold. And, of course, the Nepali and Tibetan support teams, from yak herders to high-altitude Sherpas and Nepali climbers, will be out of a season’s worth of work, which is a bigger issue than all the others combined.

ExplorersWeb has been doing an excellent job of covering the political side of China’s actions, as well as the Tibetan protests.

I think I have about covered everything today–there are plenty of links to expand your knowledge on the current situation in Nepal and Tibet, a few climbers thoughts, some press coverage, some blogs. Anything else? One last thought:

In 2006, Sir Edmund Hillary was outspoken about the situation with David Sharp that led to his untimely death on Mt. Everest. Mr. Hillary, after claiming (in part) the first summit of Mt. Everest in 1953 would later go on to help countless people and establish schools in and around the Mount Everest region. With his death this past January, one has to wonder what he would have to say about the state of Mt. Everest today and the political uprisings that are sure to bring tragedy to the people he loved–