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88 including 36 foreigners atop Everest in 6 days

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88 including 36 foreigners atop Everest in 6 days

KATHMANDU, May 17: A total of 52 Sherpa and 36 foreigners have scaled Mount Everest in the last six days after the world’s tallest peak was opened for expedition this year. A total of 36 climbers from Sweden, Mexico and the UK, among other countries, left their footprints atop the mountain by Monday, according to Gyanendra Kumar Shrestha of the mountaineering section of the Department of Tourism (DoT), who is at the base camp of the Mount Everest.

A team of nine Sherpas had conquered the Everest summit last Wednesday for the first time in three years after the mountain was closed for expeditions following the deadly avalanche in 2014 and the devastating earthquake the following year, according to a government official who is at the Everest Base Camp.

According to Shrestha, the six consecutive days of summiting the world’s tallest peak is also a new record on Everest.

“This is a new record on Mount Everest as climbers have reached the summit every day for the past six days,” Shrestha told Republica over the phone. “I have been coming to the base camp for the last ten years. Earlier, there used to be a gap of at least one or two days between climbers reaching the summit due to adverse weather. But this time the weather has remained favorable,” added Shrestha.

He also told Republica that the base camp has now become ‘almost empty’ as most of the climbers have already headed for the peak.

A maximum number of climbers will summit the mountain in the next three days, he added. Given the favorable weather at the mountain, Shrestha predicts that the ongoing climbing season might extend till May 25.

A total of 289 climbers including a Nepali have acquired permits from the Department of Tourism to climb Everest this season, according to DoT.

Similarly, 400 ‘high altitude workers’ are either guiding or assisting these climbers of nearly 34 groups. Earlier on February 29, the government decided to extend the climbing permits of those climbers whose expeditions were affected by the earthquake for two subsequent years.