In what would be celebrated by most countries for skill and an attraction to others, Willie Benegas and Matt Moniz skied down the Lhotse Face this weekend. They proudly posted their accomplishment on Facebook and now, instead of being lauded by the Nepal Ministry, they are being attacked for not following silly and secret rules.<\/p>\n
The Himalayan Times<\/a>, parroting that the Ministry, reported that according to Ram Prasad Sapkota, director at the DoT, that\u00a0<\/em>after receiving the information from Everest base camp \u201cThe duo only obtained Everest climbing permit and their ski attempt was illegal. Climbers shall pay US$1,000 as royalty to obtain ski permit while the ski team must have a liaison officer to monitor their activities in the mountains and the ski team also needs to deposit US$500 as garbage management fee at the DoT.\u201d<\/p>\n I contacted Matt and he said, \u201cWillie and I have permits for both Everest and Lhotse, unfortunately we were completely unaware of the ski permit requirement, and of course have made arrangements to pay for the permit and comply with the regulations. We certainly respect Nepal\u2019s mountaineering rules and regulations and believe we were in compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n Of note, the word “ski” does not appear in the\u00a0Mountaineering Expedition Rules, 2059(2002)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>posted on the\u00a0<\/strong>Government of Nepal,\u00a0Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation,\u00a0Department of Tourism<\/a> official website.<\/p>\n