Gyanendra Shrestha, an official of the Department of Tourism, said those reaching the top are the Icefall Doctors who prepare the route up to Mt Everest.
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The Sherpas were hired by expeditions to carry equipment and secure ropes on Everest for about 300 foreign climbers trying to make the ascent. Numbers are well below the almost 700 who submitted in 2013, showing how badly climbing and adventure tourism in the Himalayan nation have been hit by the Everest tragedies and last year’s quake, which destroyed a million homes.
But again in 2015, avalanches set off by the devastating April 25 quake killed 19 climbers, including high-altitude guides and helpers at the base camp and the Khumbu Icefall region, forcing authorities to shut down the expedition for a second year in a row.
May is also one of the best months for climbing Everest from the Tibet side, with about 550 visits a day to the base camp there at the height of 2015, according to the Xinhua news agency.
“Climbers will then start making summit attempts from Thursday”, Sherpa told Reuters. “If rope fixed to summit today, they’ll move to South Col Thursday for summit attempt”, it said.
But on May 23, Chinese climber Wang Jing reached the summit of Everest.
He said the weather was favourable for climbing with only light snow falling on Tuesday.
More than 4,000 people have climbed the world’s tallest mountain since Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first touched the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.
Climbing teams announced plans to summit Everest after disasters cut short campaigns to the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot summit) high Himalayan peak and raised fears for Nepal’s lucrative trekking industry.
The Nepalese government has issued permits to 289 climbers who want to scale Everest this year.
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South African climber Lysle Turner, 26, who was on Everest when the 7.8-magnitude quake tore through base camp past year, said he felt positive about returning to the peak this season.
