Thread: I'm dying to climb Mt Everest

Nepal struggling as coronavirus pandemic shuts down tourism and keeps Mount Everest climbers away


From this last year ...



To this ...



It was only last year that Nepal's star attraction, Mount Everest, had become so popular that long queues of mountain climbers created dangerous traffic jams at the summit peak.

Key points:

• After closing to visitors early this year due to the pandemic, the country opened up to international tourists last month.
• Department of Immigration records put number of tourists this year at 6,208 and fewer than 200 trekkers
• With so many reliant on tourism, the shortening of this year's climbing season has been a huge blow

Now, the country is confronting a different reality as tourist hotspots sit mostly empty after the coronavirus pandemic forced the sector to go into a deep freeze.

Here