KATHMANDU: For the second time in five years, the snowy slopes of Everest will lie empty and silent. On 11 March, China suspended all climbing expeditions from the Tibetan side due to the coronavirus pandemic. Neighbouring Nepal supported the decision and followed suit, suspending the climbing season on its side of the mountain. Once again, as witnessed in 2015 when devastating earthquakes hit the region, no human being will summit the world’s highest peak this season.
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COVID-19 has had an enormous economic impact across the globe in terms of tourism. Adventure tourism is the backbone of Nepal’s economy, and this season’s shutdown will affect the livelihoods of around a million people. Not only will mountain guides and sherpas be affected, but also those who work in shops, restaurants, transportation, hotels, tea houses, B&Bs and other tourism-related businesses.
Summiting Everest is a dangerous endeavour, and after last year’s disastrous “traffic jam” on the mountain, which led to the deaths of 11 climbers, this year’s coronavirus health risks cannot be ignored. Mountaineering is a thrilling and challenging sport, but in Nepal it is also a business – and the complex, multifaceted Everest climbing industry supports thousands of jobs. In 2019, Nepal’s tourism industry generated 240 million Nepali rupees (about £1.6 billion).
Impact on small-scale tourism
The 2018 and 2019 climbing seasons set record numbers for Everest summits. Perhaps after the shocking scenes of summit overcrowding in 2019, 2020 will now be the season that the holy Chomolungma – as the Tibetans call their mountain – will take a well-earned rest and recover from the increasingly commercialized expeditions that cause excessive amounts of traffic, rubbish and human waste.
For a country like Nepal, with its vulnerable population and fragile medical system, banning tourists and travel is the safest option. After the disaster of last year’s season, Nepal’s government revised its climbing policy and created new rules. Now climbers have to prove they possess high-altitude mountaineering experience (over 6,500m on a peak in Nepal) and provide evidence of sufficient training and good health. Government-approved tourism companies must now have at least three years’ experience in organising expeditions and only Nepalese citizens can be leaders, guides and altitude workers.
This enforced hiatus can give the country some valuable time to think about the other changes it wants to make to its mountain tourism industry. Perhaps policy can now shift from a focus on profit to more sustainable management that can benefit the environment, Nepalese communities and tourist alike.
The coronavirus has had a profound and wide-ranging impact on people, mobility and economies around the world, but the positive impact of lockdown measures on the environment have also been reported. At the beginning of April, for the first time in 30 years, residents in northern India reported seeing the snow-capped Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas 200 kilometres away due to a drop in air pollution.
Perhaps Everest will also reap some benefits from this unforeseen break from intensive tourism, and its environment will have time to regenerate and recover
