Nepal: Push to Open Peaks to Climbers

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/nepal-push-to-open-peaks-to-climbers.html

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The government is considering contracts with climbing companies that would grant exclusive access to many of its highest mountains, a spokesman for Nepal’s tourism ministry said on Tuesday, as part of an effort to bring more climbers to the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range. Nepal has some 3,310 mountains, but only 310 are open to commercial climbing. Since the government determined that it cannot manage all of its peaks, it will soon propose offering 30-year leases on the remaining 3,000 mountains to climbing companies, which would then organize climbs and charge fees. Nepal collects about $2.7 million annually in mountaineering fees, most of which comes from the nearly 35,000 people who visit Mount Everest. Nepal has long been trying to increase and diversify its tourism business, with its extraordinary mountains — 60 peaks higher than 26,000 feet — at the center of those efforts. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries, and the country’s youths are increasingly leaving for jobs elsewhere.