Nepal has announced an increase in the cost of climbing Mount Everest, raising the fee for foreign climbers to $15,000 starting September 2025. This marks the first fee hike in nearly a decade, as reported by Marca. The royalty fee for foreigners climbing Mount Everest from the normal south route during the spring season (March-May) will increase from the current $11,000 per person to $15,000, according to officials.
Climbers planning to ascend Mount Everest during the autumn season will now have to pay $7,500, up from the previous fee of $5,500, as noted by The Hindu. In winter (December to February), the permit fee will rise by $1,000 to $3,750, up from the current $2,750. The same adjustments apply to Nepali climbers, with the royalty fees increased, according to Online Khabar.
The increase in climbing fees is part of a series of measures aimed at reducing pollution and ecological impact on Mount Everest, the highest peak on the planet. Nepalese authorities will implement more restrictive regulations to address environmental concerns, including measures to combat pollution and enhance safety. Climbing permits will now be limited to 55 days, reduced from 75 days, according to Marca.
Under the revised rules, from the upcoming spring season, Everest climbers will have to bring their feces back to the base camp for proper disposal. Climbers will also have to carry biodegradable bags to collect garbage in the upper areas as part of a new initiative to adopt sustainable practices. The use of biodegradable bags is now mandatory for climbers scaling peaks over 8,000 meters, as part of a broader effort to address environmental degradation in the Everest region, The Indian Express reported.
"The climbing regulations have been modified with immediate effect to reduce pollution, and an initiative has been launched to adopt sustainable practices to preserve the fragile ecosystem of Everest," said Indu Ghimire, the press secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, according to Milenio. Ghimire also stated that the focus of the new rules is on waste management, social security for high-altitude workers, and increasing government revenue, as noted by The Economic Times.
"The fee for permits has not been revised for a long time. Now we have updated it," stated Narayan Prasad Regmi, the Director General of the Department of Tourism, according to Het Nieuwsblad. "The regulations were old; many subjects needed to be included, so the government has made a new regulation," Dr. Regmi added, as reported by Online Khabar.
The last adjustment of the climbing permit tariffs for Mount Everest was in 2015, when the government switched from a group-based system to a uniform fee of $11,000 per climber for the spring season, as mentioned by The Indian Express. The fee increase had been under discussion in Nepal for some time, with authorities stating that the increase was long overdue since the last adjustment.
At the base camp, there are usually toilet tents with barrels to collect human feces during the expedition, but there have been complaints about weak implementation of waste management standards. In higher camps, only a few agencies provide waste disposal facilities, while others resort to digging open pits for waste disposal, The Hindu noted.
Mandatory waste collection is part of a broader effort to address environmental degradation in the Everest region. Climbers have long relied on unsustainable practices, accumulating garbage—including discarded oxygen canisters, abandoned tents, food packaging, and human waste—which has severe ecological impacts and has turned the base camp into a garbage dump, The Hindu reported.
Mountaineering experts have long criticized the Nepali government for allowing too many people to climb Mount Everest, contributing to overcrowding on its slopes and severe ecological impact. Nearly 2,000 people assembled at the base camp last spring, according to Milenio. Around 600 climbers, including 200 foreigners, reached the summit of Mount Everest during the same period, as reported by The Indian Express.
Nepal is home to eight of the fourteen mountains higher than 8,000 meters, including Mount Everest. Mount Everest can be climbed from both Nepal and China, but on the Chinese side, the costs for the climbing permit are even higher.
Climbing Mount Everest is a milestone for mountaineering enthusiasts. The Southeast route was first conquered in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. Since 1953, nearly 8,900 climbers have reached the highest peak in the world from the Nepalese side, according to Milenio.
Those aspiring to scale Mount Qomolangma this spring will not have to pay the increased fee, as the new fees will be effective from September, as reported by News China. "Already confirmed bookings for the spring expedition of 2025 will not be affected by this change," said Ghimire, according to The Hindu.
The local government of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality sold 1,700 biodegradable poop bags and implemented their use as part of an initiative to address the garbage problem on Mount Everest, The Indian Express reported. Very few climbers use biodegradable bags to transport waste from the summit, according to B92.
Some expedition organizers said that the increase in climbing fees, which had been discussed since last year, is unlikely to discourage climbers.
The fees for Everest permits are an important source of income for Nepal, contributing approximately 4% of the country's GDP from mountaineering and mountain tourism, according to Reise Reporter.
In 2019, Nepal's military began annual clean-up operations on Mount Everest and has since collected 119 tons of trash from the mountain, as reported by Sydsvenskan. During cleaning operations conducted by the Nepali army, several tons of garbage and multiple corpses were found, including 14 human bodies and some skeletons, with approximately 200 more bodies estimated to remain on the mountain.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq