A safe route for climbing Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is set to be operational by next Chaitra. The Department of Tourism has stated that the route to climb Mount Everest from the Nupse side, which was first used by New Zealand’s Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953, is about 80 percent complete.
According to Himal Gautam, director of the department, this route is safer than the one towards Khumbu Icefall, so preparations are underway to make it operational by the upcoming spring season. He said that since it will be about 200 meters long, a route to climb Mount Everest directly via Khumbu Icefall has been opened for the shortest route.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, an expert and tourism expert at the World Mountaineering Federation, said that the Khumbu Icefall route was first launched in 1984. According to him, after the opening of the Khumbu Icefall route, the route to Nupse, known as the traditional route, became useless. He said that this route is much safer and more reliable than the one to the Khumbu Icefall.
World-renowned climber and researcher Kazi Sherpa, French climber Marc Vatai, and another world-renowned French climber Antoine Arroye have been tasked with the search, research, and re-operation of the same route, informed Himal Gautam, Director of the Department of Tourism. According to him, about 80 percent of the construction of the route, which will lead to the Everest Base Camp at the foot of Mount Nupse, has been completed.
The remaining 20 percent of the work is being completed and preparations are underway to operate it within the upcoming spring season (Falgun-Chait), said Gautam, director of the department. “The team of world-renowned climber Kazi Sherpa of Nepal and Everest climber Marc Vatai of France have become active. The department has already given permission as per the decision of the Council of Ministers,” he said, “However, the government has not made any financial investment for that.”