FILE- In this Nov. 12, 2015 file photo, Mount Everest is seen from the way to Kalapatthar in Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
FILE- In this May 25, 2021, file photo, veteran Sherpa guide Kami Rita returns from the mountains on a helicopter after scaling Mount Everest in Kathmandu, Nepal. Since Everest was first conquered on May 29, 1953, thousands of people have scaled the peak and many Nepalese Sherpa guides have done it multiple times. Kami Rita scaled the peak a record 25 times this month.
FILE- In this May 25, 2021 file photo, veteran Sherpa guide Kami Rita, center, returns from the mountains on a helicopter after scaling Mount Everest in Kathmandu, Nepal. Since Everest was first conquered on May 29, 1953, thousands of people have scaled the peak and many Nepalese Sherpa guides have done it multiple times. Kami Rita scaled the peak a record 25 times this month.
FILE- In this Nov. 8, 2019, photo, Mingma Sherpa, owner of Seven Summit Treks speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kathmandu, Nepal. “Even though coronavirus has reached the Everest base camp it has not made any huge effect like what is being believed outside of the mountain,” said the biggest expedition operator on Everest. “No one has really fallen seriously sick because of COVID or died like the rumors that has been spreading.”
FILE- In this March 19, 2021, file photo, a Nepalese health worker collects a nasal swab sample of Bahraini prince Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa to test for COVID-19 before he heads for an expedition to Mount Everest in Kathmandu, Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
FILE- In this May 22, 2021, file photo, mountain guide Lukas Furtenbach speaks to The Associated Press in Kathmandu, Nepal. The prominent guide of Austria decided to halt his expedition this month and pull out his clients and his team because of coronavirus among this team members. Furtenbach on return from the mountain estimated more than 100 climbers and support staff have been infected by the coronavirus on Everest.
FILE – In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A year after Mount Everest was closed to climbers as the pandemic swept across the globe, hundreds are making the final push to the summit with only a few more days left in the season, saying they are undeterred by a coronavirus outbreak in base camp.
Three expedition teams to Everest canceled their climb this month following reports of people getting sick. But the remaining 41 teams decided to continue with hundreds of climbers and their guides scaling the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) top in the season that ends in May, before bad weather sets in.
“Even though the coronavirus has reached the Everest base camp, it has not made any huge effect like what is being believed outside of the mountain,” said Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, the biggest expedition operator on Everest. “No one has really fallen seriously sick because of COVID or died like the rumors that have been spreading.”
With 122 clients from 10 teams on Everest, the company led the biggest group but there were no serious illnesses among them, he said.
Nepalese officials have downplayed reports of coronavirus cases on Mount Everest, apparently out of concern of creating chaos and confusion in the base camp. After a gap year of no income from climbers, Nepal has been eager to cash in on this year’s season.
“Many people made it to the base camp and it is possible that the people who went there from here could have been infected,” Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli said. “But that does not mean that it (coronavirus) has reached the entire mountain, maybe a part of the base camp or the area below that.”
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