Posts tagged #nepal · All posts
Four Russian climbers spent two days breaking trail in an unprepared Khumbu Icefall, turned back near 5,800 metres, and climbed to the Lho La in a single day instead. They now stand at the foot of Everest's West Ridge, with the whole south side to themselves.
A Kazakh dentist, Dr Aijan Jumabayeva, plans the first dental clinic at Everest Base Camp for spring 2027. Treatment will be free, Sherpas, guides and porters come first, and fifteen volunteer dentists will work in shifts at 5,364 metres.
A four-member Russian team holds an autumn permit for Everest listed as "Everest Other Route", and says it intends to climb without supplemental oxygen. A second Russian team of six is heading for the Kangchenjunga region to attempt two first ascents and then a new line on Jannu. Both expeditions are moving while the commercial Manaslu season has closed.
An avalanche buried the base camp of Himlung Himal in Manang on 27 September, catching 16 expedition workers: 14 kitchen staff and two climbing guides. Volunteer IFMGA guides recovered four bodies in the first two days, and a larger team later brought the total to 15, with one person still under the debris. Outfitters have since reopened the trail from Koto and climbers are returning to the mountain, while Nepali outlets are calling for an independent review of who decided that staff should stay in camp through the storm.
Nepal has issued close to 500 Everest climbing permits for the season, which DW reports as the highest figure on record. A leaning serac closed the route through the Khumbu icefall for more than two weeks before it reopened. With the Chinese north side shut for the year, every expedition is on the Nepali south route.
Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, an 18-time Everest summiteer who runs his own guiding business, told the South China Morning Post that young Nepalis are leaving the mountains for education and work abroad. He expects a shortage of Sherpa climbing staff to become a serious problem for the industry. He was in Hong Kong for the premiere of Road To Everest, a documentary about climber Raj Gurung.
A study of Everest Base Camp calculates that heat from fuel burning and human waste could melt around 2,492 tonnes of ice and snow in a single spring season, with roughly 154 tonnes of that attributed to urine. The research covers the Khumbu Glacier on the Nepali side, where hundreds of climbers and staff live for weeks each April and May. The researchers say climate change remains by far the main driver of glacier loss, and that base camp acts as an additional local heat source.
Nepal is preparing legislation that would require prior high-altitude climbing experience before an Everest permit is issued, according to Tempo.co English, citing ANTARA. Lawmakers are still discussing how many climbs above 7,000 and 8,000 metres would count. The same report sets out the current royalty for foreign climbers on the standard route at US$15,000 in spring, with lower figures in the other seasons.
Apple Original Films has confirmed that Tenzing, a drama about Tenzing Norgay and the 1953 first ascent of Everest, opens in select cinemas on 9 October 2026 and streams globally on Apple TV from 16 October. Jennifer Peedom directs, with Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing and Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary. Apple released the trailer on 16 September. Here is what the studio has confirmed about the cast, the crew and the story the film tells.
Rajendra Lama, secretary general of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told RIA Novosti that a professionally organized Everest expedition for a foreign climber costs about $60,000 on average in 2026, within a range of $45,000 to $70,000 and above. The spring 2026 permit royalty is given as $15,000 per climber. Russian outlets carried the figures on 17 September 2026, with one difference between them over whether the permit sits inside the average or on top of it.
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