Nepal has announced a 36% increase in the price of permits to climb Everest, bringing the price of a single permit to $15,000 per person. An attempt to curb the ever-increasing number of requests for climbing permits. Will this be enough to avoid high altitude queues? Nothing is less certain.
All prices go up, and so does Everest. Nepal has just announced that it will be increasing the price of the climbing permit for Everest from the current $11,000 per person to $15,000. “We have proposed a new fee of $15,000 per person for a foreigner, which will be implemented by early 2025,” explains a spokesman for the Ministry of Tourism, as reported by the Kathmandu Post, this, says the newspaper, in a bid to streamline mountain tourism and control the number of climbers, against the backdrop of persistent complaints about the growing number of deaths on the world’s highest peak.
The price of a permit for Everest had not been increased since 2015, annus horribilis of the earthquake in Nepal. Before that the fee was ten thousand dollars per person in a group of fifteen. Since then, the system has been changed, with the Ministry of Tourism charging $11,000 per head regardless of group size until today – and even 2024 since the price increase will be applied for 2025.
On the way up to Everest Base Camp, Khumbu, Nepal. ©Jocelyn Chavy
Let’s not forget that the 2023 season was a record-breaking one, including in the macabre register.