Climbing
Nepal’s Department of Tourism recently put forth a new plan to identify the annual “carrying capacity” of Everest, following instructions from the Nepal Supreme Court. This plan includes allowing the Department of Tourism to cap the number of permits it grants annually. Starting in September, the Nepali government also stated it will be raising the spring season permit fee for climbing Everest. The cost will increase from the previous $11,000 USD to $15,000 USD. Climbers will also be required to climb at least one other 23,000-foot Nepali peak before access to Everest is granted.
The recent changes come as a result of years of overcrowding and a list of avoidable fatalities on Everest in recent years. During the 2025 climbing season, at least 468 people obtained the required individual permit to climb Mount Everest from the Nepal side. These permit fees alone generated $5 million in revenue for Nepal’s central government, according to the Department of Tourism. With them comes a host of sherpas, guides, and other support staff, who gather every March at base camp.
“Everyone wants to climb Mount Everest, but they don’t all have the skills,” Mingma Chhiri Sherpa said, head of Khumbu Rural Municipality. “When there’s more climbers, there are more accidents and more pollution. So now we have to control all these things.” he went on to say in an article written by The Christian Science Monitor. There has already been five deaths on Everest in 2025 as of July. In 2023, when the most climbers ever attempted the summit from the Nepali side, a record 18 people died.
These historic changes come in an effort to reduce human traffic on the mountain from inexperienced climbers not yet ready to attempt the world’s highest peak. Many climbers attempt to conquer Everest as it has the most outside assistance of any 8,000-meter mountain in the world. Nepali porters carry all of the necessary gear, while both Sherpa and Western guides lead climbers to the summit. This perceived safety net has led to severe overcrowding in recent years, putting the lives of both foreign climbers and local Nepali guides at risk.
The new increase in permit costs for Everest comes in an effort to specifically redistribute the thousands of climbers that come to Nepal every year across its other 461 mountains. While the increase will hopefully drive tourism into other parts of Nepal in addition to the Everest region, locals are not worried Everest tourism will be stopping anytime soon. Mingma Chhiri Sherpa concluded by saying that “there’s only one Everest.”
