Everest south side closed for climbing during torch, "to prevent some people who could infiltrate and cause trouble" - second update
02:28 pm CDT Mar 14, 2008
(MountEverest.net/story updated 2.33 pm) Last spring, the Chinese Olympic torch team closed down the regular BC, and erected a fence around their camp with armed military personnel minding the entrances.
News published at ExplorersWeb in August 2007 that the China/Tibet Mountaineering Association were asking Nepal to help close the peak during the Olympic torch team's 2008 summit push were however strongly denounced by officials from both sides.
Yet today, Nepal's tourism minister reportedly told Reuters, "climbers will be banned from going beyond Everest's base camp until 10 May." The official Nepal Ministry Tourism website is not updated with these news at the time of this report.
Concern for...politics
In a letter to climbers Monday this week, Chinese officials claimed that Everest north side restrictions would take place due to crowding and safety concerns.
According to the Nepalese Tourism Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal's move to close the south side was done in response to a request from China. "This is to prevent some people who could infiltrate and cause trouble during the time when they take the torch to the top," he told Reuters.
Update: Voice of America report - local climbers critical of decision
Voice of America state that the south side ban concerns climbing above BC between May 1-10.
The news source reports that the timing of the announcement, just three weeks before expeditions leave for Everest, has been criticized by local mountain climbers.
Everest speed climber Pemba Dorje Sherpa said China's Olympics should not affect Nepal, while Susmita Maskey - team member in the Nepalese women expedition told VOA: "They knew about the Olympics since many years so they should have announced these things long time before, not just three weeks before expedition, the actual expedition."
Find the Reuters, BBC and VOA reports in the links section.
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