Climbers returning from Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks are struggling to find a return flight back home after Nepal banned most air travel to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, mountaineering operators and hikers said on Wednesday. Most regular international flights are closed through June as a deadly second wave of the coronavirus hit the Himalayan nation tucked between China and India. Nepal issued 742 permits – 408 of those to climbers aspiring to make it to the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest – in the April-May climbing season. And hundreds of climbers are now returning from the mountains before the onset of annual monsoon rains. Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, a senior official at Kathmandu-based private firm Seven Summit Treks, said climbers were finding it ...
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A retired attorney from Chicago who became the oldest American to scale Mount Everest, and a Hong Kong teacher who is now the fastest female climber of the world's highest peak, on Sunday returned safely from the mountain where climbing teams have been struggling with bad weather and a coronavirus outbreak. Arthur Muir, 75, scaled the peak earlier this month, beating the record by another American, Bill Burke, at age 67. Tsang Yin-hung, 45, of Hong Kong scaled the summit from the base camp in 25 hours and 50 minutes, and became the fastest female climber. The record 10 hours and 56 minutes is held by a Sherpa guide, Lakpa Gelu. A climbing accident in 2019, when he hurt his ankle falling off a ladder, did not deter Muir from attempting to scale the peak again. The retired lawyer, ...
Read More38 climbers reach summit on Tuesday as Nepal battles second COVID-19 wave Foreigners climbed Mount Everest for the first time since Nepal’s government reopened the mountain after it was shut last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite recent coronavirus cases at its base camp. Thirty-eight climbers including ten Bahraini and two British mountaineers climbed the world's highest mountain on Tuesday, according to hiking companies. FILE PHOTO: Light illuminates Mount Everest, during sunset in Solukhumbu District also known as the Everest region. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar It comes as a few climbers were evacuated from the Everest base camp in April after they fell sick with COVID-19 symptoms as Nepal battles a devastating second wave of coronaviurs infections. "Twelve foreign...
Read MoreChina will set up "a line of separation" at the summit of Mount Everest to prevent the mingling of climbers from COVID-hit Nepal and those ascending from the Tibetan side as a precautionary measure, Chinese state media reported on Sunday. Everest base camp on the Nepalese side has been hit by coronavirus cases since late April. The Nepalese government, starved of tourism revenue, has yet to cancel the spring climbing season, usually from April to early June before the monsoon rains. FILE PHOTO: Light illuminates Mount Everest, during sunset in Solukhumbu District also known as the Everest region. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar It was not immediately clear how the line would be enforced on the summit, a tiny, perilous and inhospitable area the size of a dining table. A small team of ...
Read MoreReleases memoir timed for 100th anniversary of first Mt. Everest expedition Timed for the 100th anniversary since the first climbers ascended Mount Everest comes the new real-life adventure memoir, The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain’s Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again by Jim Davidson, a critically-acclaimed mountain climber and environmental geologist who was on the mountain’s Camp One in 2015 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake slammed into the Himalayas—killing 18 people on the mountain and nearly 9,000 others across Nepal and in neighboring countries. According to Davidson, The Next Everest reveals controversial and never-before-shared facts, including: • Future Earthquake Risk: Davidson’s geologic background and in-person evaluation of the earthquake ...
Read MoreHundreds of climbers are set to return to Mount Everest for the first time next month under strict conditions, government officials and mountaineers said, as the world’s tallest peak reopens after a year closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 300 foreign climbers were likely to attempt to scale the 8,849-metre (29,031-feet) mountain in the peak climbing season beginning in April, tourism department official Mira Acharya said, compared with a record 381 climbers who attempted the famed summit in the same period in 2019. FILE PHOTO: Light illuminates Mount Everest, during sunset in Solukhumbu District also known as the Everest region. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar “This is ... despite the one-week quarantine requirement and certificate showing the climber had tested negative ...
Read MoreTrash collected from Mount Everest is set to be transformed into art and displayed in a nearby gallery, to highlight the need to save the world’s tallest mountain from turning into a dumping site. Used oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers discarded by climbers and trekkers litter the 8,848.86 metre (29,032 feet) tall peak and the surrounding areas. Tommy Gustafsson, project director and a co-founder of the Sagarmatha Next Centre - a visitors’ information centre and waste up-cycling facility - said foreign and local artists will be engaged in creating artwork from waste materials and train locals to turn trash into treasures. “We want to showcase how you can transform solid waste to precious pieces of art … and generate employment and in...
Read MoreSandakphu at an altitude of 3636 m (11941 ft) is the highest peak in West Bengal. This place in the Singalila range of the Himalayas is one of the best places to have a panoramic view of Himalayas in India. Besides being known for its glorious views of Kanchenjunga this is said to be the only place in India from where one can see four of the top five peaks in the world- Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu. Located in the Darjeeling district on the West Bengal-Sikkim border, Sandakphu can be reached by a beautiful trek from Manebhanjang or through a once in a lifetime bone-shaking ride on a 2nd World war Land Rover. https://youtu.be/Gt58mNoJUVo ...
Read MoreMalavath Poorna is the youngest female in the world to reach the summit- Mt. Everest, a dream for all adventure seekers around the world. At 6.30 in the morning of 25th May 2014, she unfurled the Indian tricolour at the highest point on this planet. She was just 13 years and 11 months at that time. Born of a very poor family of agricultural labourers, Poorna is also the youngest Indian to reach the summit. In fact she was just one month older then the youngest person ever to climb the Mount Everest successfully, who was a US boy. A ninth standard student at Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Educational Institutions Society's school, Poorna struggled against all odds to be on top. Hailing from a background, where none of her villager folk have ever seen snow in their lives, Poorna achieved the...
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