Everest 2025: Nepal New Rules- Some Good, Some Not

In an admirable effort to reduce deaths and save lives on Everest, the Nepal government has implemented two additional rules for the upcoming 2025 Spring season. One is a great idea, but the other is not so great. However, the efforts still lag the magnitude of the problems.

Instead of enacting rules to minimize missing climbers and deaths, Nepal adds regulations to aid in body recovery. This is analogous to having a busy traffic intersection where countless crashes occur. The city decided the best action would be to pre-place ambulances and tow trucks instead of enhancing traffic signals.

Remember that 23 of the 26 Everest deaths in 2023 and 2024 were climbing, with companies charging less than the median price. Four of the 26 deaths were classified as “missing” by the Himalayan Database. All were between 8334 and 8848 meters.

Why do I continue to write about this? Please continue reading to see the impact on one family whose grief could have been slightly reduced through more transparent communications and legitimate regulations.

Reduce Deaths With More Guides

The first “new rule” bars solo expeditions and requires a “guide” (there is no definition of a guide—a Sherpa? a Westerner? a teammate?) for every two climbers on peaks above 8,000 meters, including Everest. For other mountains, the rule requires at least one guide per group.

There is zero specification as to the minimum training for the “guide,” such as attending an entry-level course on mountaineering at the Khumbu Climbing Center. With 300 to 400 members each season, this suggests Nepal has 150 to 200 trained “guides” ready to support the climbers.

There has been “a rule for years requiring each climber to hire a “guide,” so this is not new and waters down the previous requirement. Note that there are already more Sherpas than members climbing Everest. In 2024, of the 867 summits, 400 Sherpas summited in support of 300 members, a ratio of 1: 1.5.

Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, quoted in the Kathmandu Post, states:

“We have made guides mandatory to ensure climbers’ safety, particularly on the 8,000ers. The solo climbing era on these peaks has ended, regardless of a climber’s experience. Whether alpine-style or expedition-style, from now on, no one can climb these mountains without a support guide.”

This is crushing news to true alpinists who prefer to climb solo like Jost Kobusch. However, like most Nepal rules, look for this to be ignored or worked around. Mingma Sherpa, managing director of Seven Summit Treks, likes the works program for local Sherpas but also sees it as more of a guideline than a rule, saying,

“If a professional climber hires a guide to comply with the rule, it doesn’t mean they can’t climb on their own.”

In other words, a climber can pay 7 Summits Treks for their guiding service but not use them. Once again, major headlines for a rule that has no teeth.

RECCO Is Back … from Helicopters

Last year, the ministry garnered global press for making Everest safer. As Rakesh Gurung, director of Nepal’s Department of Tourism, announced in 2024:

Climbers are required to rent or buy a “GPS chip” that will be “sewn into their jacket.”Gurung told CNN that the chips are manufactured in “a European country” but did not specify where or by which company and cost $10-15 apiece for each chip. He said that they would be sewn into the climber’s jacket. Once the climber returns, the chip will be removed, given back to the government, and saved for the next person. Reputed companies were already using them, but now it’s been mandatory for all climbers. It will cut down search and rescue time in the event of an accident.”

Family Distress

To my knowledge, no reflectors were sewn into any climber’s jackets, creating serious distress for the families who lost loved ones last year. One family member who lost a loved one sent me this message last year:

… we understand that GPS trackers are a mandatory requirement for all climbers attempting to summit Everest from Nepal. But the expedition company have stated that [redacted] did not provide them with the details of a tracker. This is troubling as we obviously felt that a tracker could have assisted in locating [redacted], although we appreciate the challenges in recovering from that area. The expedition company have openly stated that they did not actually realise [redacted] and his Sherpa were missing until the team had returned to camp 4. At this point a search began.

Last year, I debunked much of this PR hype, mostly questioning the terms “GPS ” and “chip.” RECCO is neither GPS nor a chip. In 2025, communications will be much clearer and more realistic. Let’s review what RECCO is.

What is RECCO?

RECCO is a novel solution for finding buried skiers. In 1973, before any electronic aids existed, Sweed Magnus Granhed and his friends were left to search for skiers caught in an avalanche with their ski poles. Motivated to find a better solution, they developed a radar-based solution, the RECCO system.

It starts with a small tag (13 mm × 51 mm × 1.5 mm or 0.5 x 2 x 0.05 inches) consisting of two pieces of foil separated by a diode, tuned to respond to a specific radar frequency. The tag is usually sewn into clothing or attached to gear. A detector transmits a radar wavelength to find a reflector. The radar of a given wavelength is reflected off any metal that approximates the correct size and shape. Still, the RECCO tag has a diode and a second piece of foil that reflect the radar’s energy at twice the original frequency- a relatively easy response for a sensor to detect. The radar can penetrate snow (as in avalanches), but its response is much more robust in hiking or mountain biking, where the tags are above ground. The handheld detector can locate a RECCO reflector up to 262.5 feet (80 meters) through the air and 65.5 feet (20 meters) away through packed snow.

Like an avalanche beacon, a searcher must search for the reflector using a unique detector device weighing 1kg/2.2 pounds. The reflector does not require batteries, activation, or a subscription. It is often sewn into a skier’s clothing, usually their ski bibs, but there are attachable reflectors for helmets and backpacks that sell for $38.00.

A RECCO SAR Helicopter Detector allows professional rescuers to perform rapid searches for missing people on a larger scale outdoors. Searching with 100-meter-wide corridors, the RECCO SAR Helicopter Detector can cover about 1 km2/0.39 miles within 6 minutes.

According to RECCO, they are not new to the Himalayas. In 2012, during the Manaslu avalanche near Camp 3, rescue teams from France and Nepal used the RECCO detector to assist in locating avalanche victims.

Ten handheld detectors will be strategically positioned with rescue partners in 2025. They include NMIA, NNMGA, Simrik Air, Seven Summit Treks, Heli Everest, Imagine Nepal, and Adventure 6000 at each of Nepal’s eight 8,000-meter peak base camps. The detectors can be carried in a backpack or operated from a helicopter. RECCO reflectors are embedded in outdoor gear from over 150 leading brands and almost all skiwear.

Nepal proposes using the helicopter version of the detector, which suggests sending a chopper to where the missing climber was last seen and scanning the area. This assumes the missing people are buried under snow, not rocks, and the reflector has a clear line of sight to the detector – dangling from a helicopter.

The area above the South Col has large boulders and many places where a person could be hidden from sight. Climbers have gone missing around the Balcony, an altitude of 27,300 feet. Most helicopters won’t fly above Camp 3 at 23,000; however, a special helicopter touched down at Everest’s summit in 2005.

Climbers can buy a RECCO reflector in Nepal per their site.

The Challenge

Missing climbers are not the most significant opportunity to make Everest safer. According to the Himalayan Database, of the 124 deaths on the Nepal side of Everest from 2000 to 2024, only six, or 4.8%, were classified as missing. The top causes of death were AMS and exhaustion, suggesting they could have been saved by turning around at the first sign of trouble—something a qualified guide would do.

Focusing on the deadly 2023 and 2024 seasons, of the 26 deaths, eight were classified as missing, and all were above 7500 meters:

• 7500-7999m: 1
• 8000-8499: 2
• 8500-8850: 2

Helicopters are used for long-line rescues, in which a person is hooked to a rope hanging from a helicopter and taken lower. The upper limit of these body recovery and rescues has continuously increased.

• The record for an alpine helicopter rescue was at 7800 meters on Lhotse in 2013 by Simone Moro.
• Italian Giampaolo Corona and Sweed Tim Bogdanov grabbed a helicopter longline from two locations near Camp 4 on Annapurna at 7,000 meters on April 30, 2022.
• Three Spanish climbers at Annapurna High Camp on April 29, 2010, at an altitude of 6,950m.
• In 2013, Sudarshan Gautam summited but fell near the Yellow Band on Everest, 6467m. He was rescued using a ‘long line’ from a helicopter.
• Baljeet Kaur was long-lined from 6,500 meters (21,325 feet) on Annapurna in 2023.

Missing Climbers

These tragic climbers had their deaths classified as missing in the 2023/24 season:

1. May 19: Indian Singaporean Shrinivas Sainis Dattatray, 39, is presumed dead from a fall but is missing. His agency was Seven Summits Treks.

2. May 19: Malaysian Muhammad Hawari Hashim, 33, is presumed dead from a fall but is missing. His agency was Pioneer Adventure.

3. May 25: Nepali Ranjit Kumar Shah, 36, is presumed dead near the South Summit but is missing. His agency was Annapurna Treks.

4. May 25: Lakpa Nuru Sherpa (Phakding), 41, is presumed dead near the South Summit but is missing. His agency was Annapurna Treks.

5. May 25, Hungarian Szilard Suhajda, 40, climbing alone with no Sherpa support and without supplemental oxygen, went missing near the Hillary Step and is presumed dead. His agency was Asian Trekking.

These teams had deaths in the last two years on Everest.

• 8K Expeditions: 6
• Asian Trekking: 3
• Imagine Nepal: 3
• Pioneer Adventure: 2
• Seven Summits Treks: 3
• Annapurna Treks: 2
• Peak Promotion: 2
• Expedition Himalaya: 1
• Glacier Himalaya Treks: 1
• International Mountain Guides: 1
• Madison Mountaineering: 1
• Makalu Adventure: 1
• Yeti: 1

If Not This, Then What?

If Nepal was serious about improving safety, there are tangible steps they could take:

1. All climbers are required to have summited 7000 meters or higher before Everest permits are issued to them.
2. Require all “guides” to be IFMGA certified or at least have taken climbing, medical and rescue courses at the Khumbu Climbing Center taught by proven, qualified Everest guides
3. Require that every person climbing Everest carry a handheld radio
4. Each team monitors and writes down every climber’s (member and support) precise location when above base camp.
5. Establish a central monitoring team at Base Camp and Camp 2 to monitor emergency frequency.
6. Position trained search and rescue resources at Base Camp, Camp 2 and rotate at the South Col during summit pushes.
7. Limit foreign permits to 400 qualified members.
8. Limit team size to 25 members with 1:1 Sherpa support. BC Staff is additional.
9. Any operator who has a client “missing” at the end of the season will be banned for one year.

Do I think any of these will ever happen? NO. There is too much money involved for Ministry Officials and operators to do anything that might reduce revenue and increase costs, even in the name of safety. But Nepal will continue to issue these so-called “safety improvements,” and the mainstream press will continue to help them in their PR campaign with little regard for the truth.

Here’s to a safe season for everyone on the Big Hill.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

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