No Nepal formal decision to ban Everest climbs

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 17 March: Nepal’s Tourism Ministry that oversees foreign climbs in the Himalaya renowned for the world’s tallest peaks hadn’t taken any formal decision until late Sunday afternoon to ban climbs on Mount Everest at the request of China from 1 to 10 May, the ministry spokesman said.
A western agency earlier quoted Tourism Prithbi Subba Gurung as saying Nepal government, at Chinese request, had imposed the ban to carry the Olympic torch to the 8848 meters summit to celebrate the August Beijing Olympics.
The ministry hasn’t given permission to any foreign expedition until now to climb the peak from the south this spring.
Expeditions, normally set out for base from the Nepalese capital in March to climb from Nepal.
Election has caught up with climbs this spring in Nepal.
Officials attached to expeditions aren’t available as they have been assigned election duties for the 10 April vote.
Officials are attached to teams to oversee their activities, especially to prevent them from making unauthorized climbs to making unauthorized climbs to Tibet crossing the high passes on the Nepal-Tibet frontier.
Tourism ministry officials have approached the Election Commission to release the officials for attachment to teams on Everest.
It’s still not late for teams to climb Everest which has been scaled in the last week of May.
Armed with a late Nepal government permit, teams still have a good chance of reaching the summit as Tenzing Sherpa and Edmund Hillary did on 29 may 1953.
But politics has also caught up with Everest.
Nepal may accede to a Chinese government request to keep Beijing happy.
In fact, CPN-UML asked government Sunday not to tolerate the anti-China activities of Tibetan refugees in Nepal even demanding a crackdown on such activities of an estimated 17,000 refugees.
The refugees were dispersed by police as they attempted to march to the UN office in the capital to protest a massive counteroffensive in Tibet.
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