Nepal is introducing a mandatory tracking system for all climbers, applicable for 2024’s Mount Everest attempts, which are starting soon and will build towards high summit season in mid-May.
Find and rescue
In 2023, 3.5% of Everest climbers did not return, with 12 known deaths and five people classed as missing. Authorities are hoping to reduce those figures. Intended to improve the chances of finding and rescuing climbers who get into trouble during their expedition, the new safety system will use tracking chips.
Every climber will be required to rent a chip that will be sewn into their clothing. Using the global positioning system (GPS), the chips will communicate with satellites and share location data enabling search teams to narrow in sooner in case of problems.
Rent and return
Chip rental will be priced at $10-15 (around €9-13) – which could be argued to be a relatively small amount given that most attempts on the summit cost in the region of $35,000 (€32,300) once equipment, food, oxygen supplies, and Sherpa guides are accounted for.
The chips will remain the property of the government and must be surrendered on return in order to become reusable for another climber. It is not a new system, but previously was not compulsory.
“Reputed companies were already using them,” Rakesh Gurung, director of Nepal’s department of tourism, said, speaking to CNN, adding, “but now it’s been made mandatory for all climbers. It will cut down search and rescue time in the event of an accident.”
Tracked to the roof of the world?
Nepal has eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains and is seeing surging visitor numbers, which brings welcome economic benefits alongside other overtourism risks that must be managed, including ecological and reputational damage.
The introduction of the tracking system follows other recent measures to improve Nepal’s mountain safety record. In spring 2023, the country prohibited solo climbing and mandated guided expeditions, after the number of tourists trekking without a guide or porter more than doubled from 20,000 in 2021, to 50,000 in 2022. With such large numbers of the climbing community apparently wanting a degree of freedom in their itinerary, just how they will react to idea of being tracked by GPS for their trek remains to be seen.
New rules to reduce pollution by making climbers take specially treated bags up and down the mountain to carry their own faeces in were also recently announced.
