Kathmandu, Nepal: Highly skilled mountaineers known in Nepal as "icefall doctors" have begun fixing ropes and ladders on Mount Everest to prepare for the coming spring climbing season, officials said Wednesday.
The team has reached the base camp before starting work on the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, a constantly shifting maze of crevasses and ice blocks that forms the gateway to the world's highest peak.
"Our team of eight have reached the base camp and begun their work," Lama Kazi Sherpa, chair of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which oversees route-setting, told AFP.
As tradition dictates, the group began with a sacred ceremony at base camp to seek divine blessings before stepping onto the mountain.
This year, authorities increased the permit fee for the spring season from $11,000 to $15,000 for climbers aiming to scale the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) summit.
Authorities also tightened rules to reduce pollution, requiring each climber to bring back at least two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of waste to Camp 2 and enforcing the use of "poo bags".
Camp 2 is a broad glacial valley above the Khumbu Icefall where climbers often spend several days to acclimatise for higher altitudes.
Expedition operators in Kathmandu are also gearing up for the season, although they anticipate some impact from the travel chaos caused by the Middle East war.
"Flight disruption may affect some of the climbers but we don't expect a big impact," said Dambar Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators Association.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and attracts hundreds of climbers each spring, when temperatures are warmer and winds calmer.
A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent in 1953.
Around 700 people reached Everest's summit last year, according to Nepal's tourism department, with another 100 climbers believed to have reached the peak from the northern Tibet side.
