When Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary completed the historic first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, the notion that so many would try to emulate their feat that eventually they would form a queue at the summit that required crowd management scarcely seemed credible. That day has long since arrived, thanks to new generations of climbers eager to tick scaling Everest off their bucket list.
Next year has been declared Visit Nepal Year, aimed at attracting 2 million tourists. The reality is that Everest brings in tourist dollars and supports a demographic that lives off the mountain, so officials are unlikely to take drastic measures that would affect either. But they could also, at least, address safety issues raised by competitive price-cutting among expedition operators, such as inexperienced guides.
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