May 2: A record number of climbers are attempting to scale the highest mountain in the world – Mt Everest – during this spring season.    
According to the Department of Tourism, a total of 466 climbers from 43 groups have obtained permits to climb Everest. Among them 98 are female and remaining 368 are male, said the department.    
Climbers eyeing to scale Everest this season are from 65 different countries including Nepal as per the records of the department. From Nepal, 15 climbers have received permits this season. Similarly, 96 climbers from China have been granted permits followed by 89 from the USA and 40 from India.    
Likewise, 33 from Hungary have acquired climbing permits, 21 from Canada, 18 from Russia and 15 from the UK.    
Former President of Nepal Mountaineering Association, Ang Tshering Sherpa, opined that the number of climbers obtaining permit from Nepal might have increased considerably as climbing from the Tibet side (northeast ridge route) is not permitted since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.    
It has been 70 years since human first set their feet on top of Mt Everest. Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary had successfully reached atop the Everest on May 29, 1953.    
Since then, around 7,000 national and international climbers have successfully climbed the 8,848.86 metres mountain till date while over 300 have lost their lives attempting to climb the world’s highest peak, according to the department.    
In 2022, 323 climbers from 44 groups had obtained permission for Everest expedition, informed Bigyan Koirala, officer at the Mountaineering Section of the department. -- RSS