Mount Everest climbers will now need to show full medical history, insurance

After the death of nine climbers this year, the Government of Nepal will be setting a new set of rules that will require climbers to disclose there full medical history. The rules if approved will come into effect only from the next climbing season. Climbers will also have to provide proof of insurance if they wish to climb mountains in Nepal, including the world's tallest peak.

Nine deaths last year

Before these new rules, only people below the age of 16 and people with serious diseases and criminal records were barred from climbing Mt. Everest as well as the other mountains. The death of nine climbers on Everest last year was the highest of the last four years and according to Mira Acharya, Director at the Tourism Department. all the deaths were caused due to health issues and that is what prompted the Nepalese government to take these strict measures in order to protect future climbers.

The newly drafted rules have already been submitted to the Tourism Ministry and once approved will be forwarded to the cabinet ministry for ratification. Before these new rules, Nepal's mountains were free to all except the three rules exceptions listed earlier. The insurance will also partially cover the retrieval of climbers in the case of death. The cost of retrieving a body above the death zone of 8,000 meters can be around $200,000 while the cost of the rescue below the death zone is $20,000-$60,000.

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The Visit Nepal 2020 campaign that plans on bringing 2 million tourists in 2020 is a big reason why they have not restricted climbers before. A government official has said that the government has restrictions in mind but not for 2020. According to the data collected by the weather station, the sun can be brutally fierce atop the peaks of Mount Everest.

The heat from the Sun is not only responsible for nasty sunburns to the hikers but has also hastened the melting of the ice caps which in turn have a severe impact on the glaciers which the scientists fail to understand.  The data was revealed on December 14, at the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union held in San Francisco. It is the first-ever collected data by the National Geographic Society and Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Extreme Expedition Everest which aims at studying climate change on Mount Everest. There have been five automatic weather stations installed which consist of two weather stations at the highest height on the planet. The elevation at which the weather stations have been installed is 27,600 feet. 

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