As of Thursday, 1.16 billion rupees in salute fees were collected from 29 mountains, including Mount Everest.
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Despite global geopolitical tensions and the ongoing fear of war in West Asia, Nepal's mountaineering sector has achieved remarkable success this spring season. Especially, the climbing activities focused on the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, have set records and have brought adventure tourism back to the international level.
According to the Department of Tourism, a total of 1,050 climbers from 77 countries have obtained permits for this spring season as of Thursday. Of these, 256 are women and 794 are men. This time, 16 Nepalis have also gone to climb Mount Everest after paying the entry fee. The department had opened the permits for spring mountain climbing since 17 Falgun.
This time, 464 climbers have obtained permits for Mount Everest alone. Of these, 100 are women and 364 are men. Climbers from 55 countries have participated in this campaign, which has collected more than 1.1 billion 2.8 million rupees in climbing fees. According to the director of the department, Himal Gautam, which is the highest ever.
Apart from Everest, a significant number of climbers have also reached 28 other major mountains. According to the data released by the department on Thursday evening, out of the 28 mountains other than Everest, 111 have taken permission for Lhotse, 92 for Ama Dablam, 62 for Makalu, 52 for Nupse, 46 for Himlung Himal, 36 for Kanchenjunga, 30 for Dhaulagiri, 27 for Annapurna and 18 for Saribung Himal. The department has collected 1.1 billion 16 million in climbing fees from all these mountains. The department has stated that this number of fees is also the highest in 76 years.
According to mountaineers, despite a slight decline in the trekking sector, the ‘Once in a Lifetime Everest’ campaign has played a role in the increase in mountaineering.
After the maximum number of permits for climbing Everest started being issued, the government had implemented a system this year (2026) requiring foreigners to pay a 15,000 US dollars (22,77,000 rupees) entry fee for climbing Everest in the spring season. Which was only 11,000 (16,79,000 rupees) for foreign climbers until 2025. The increase in the exchange rate has also helped increase revenue.
Nepali citizens have to pay only 150,000 rupees in the same season. In other seasons (autumn, winter and rainy), foreign climbers have to pay between 3,750 and 7,500 US dollars. The fee for Nepalis has been fixed at Rs 37,500 to Rs 75,000.
Department officials have said that the number of people climbing the mountain could increase further as permits will be issued for another 2 weeks. Director Gautam said that 2026 is expected to be a year of new heights in Nepal's mountaineering history as the number of climbers will increase. The highest number of permits issued for Everest was 478 in 2023.
