Beyond the earthquake and the displacement, there is a saga of a failed dream.
A large contingent of Indian climbers are still in Kathmandu and at the Everest base camp, where an avalanche killed 22 people, including Sherpas, as the earthquake wreaked havoc in Nepal. They are waiting for the govt. to give the go-ahead for the Everest expedition.
The problem is the timeline — if everything goes well with the weather, then the best time to climb is between May 15 and 23. After May 25, the weather gets too windy and the ice begins to melt. Time is, therefore, running out for the government to repair the base camp.
China has announced that the expedition will be closed from the Tibet side.
These climbers stand to lose a huge amount of money if the expedition is cancelled, which is why they are still waiting at the base camp. An agency, Him Experience, charges $60,000-70,000 a climber. A huge royalty fee has to be paid to the Nepalese government. The royalty was extended last year after a similar tragedy in April, when 16 Sherpas were killed and the expedition was called off.
The government has not committed yet to closing the expedition or extending the royalty by another year. A senior Tourism Department official says the government is keen on continuing the climb. The government has asked the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee to fix the damaged routes above the base camp. The route has to be fixed as soon as possible since every climber has to spend six days between base camp and Camp 3 before making the final attempt at the summit.
Debraj Dutta, 36, one of India’s leading mountaineers, who is waiting at the base camp, says 388 mountaineers were ready to climb this year; of them, 80-100 are unsure of whether they should come down. An Indian Army team and one from Assam are among the Everest hopefuls.
“I paid almost Rs. 30 lakh out of my pocket, including the Rs. 9-lakh royalty fee,” said Mr. Dutta, who was part of a failed expedition last year. “Since the money has been paid, it is the government’s responsibility to make the repairs immediately to give us enough preparation time. Otherwise, it should tell us if the royalty will be extended so that we don’t lose our money,” he says.
The Army team leader, Major Ranvir Singh Jamwal, says he suspects the Tourism Department was delaying the decision since it does not want to lose the royalty money. “Given the weather conditions, it is illogical to go ahead with the climb. We are running out of time,” he says. Nepal’s Director of Tourism maintains that the route from the base camp can be fixed in a few days, but says the government has to do a risk assessment after that. However, since the government’s first priority is the rescue operation around the mountains, a decision either way will be taken only on Monday.
