We’ll happily step out of our lane for a moment. Sadly, last night in Central Oregon, mosquitoes buzzed at dusk. Although this means warm temps abound, it also means we are a bit ahead of schedule season-wise. But what is right on schedule is the Everest-climbing season, which runs through April and May. As a driver of small and larger-scale economies in Nepal, there is an upside to this two-month period of hustle and bustle on the world’s highest peak. The downsides of the hustle and bustle have also been self-evident over the years. These include income disparities between Nepali and Western guides, discarded waste (human and otherwise), and the now infamous conga lines of would-be summiters at certain route cruxes. Everest is not for everyone. It is, however, for some.
For those in the “Everest is for me” camp, a piece of legislation is working its way through Nepal’s Parliament. In February, Nepal’s National Assembly (the upper house of Parliament) unanimously passed the Integrated Tourism Bill. Amidst this somewhat comprehensive plan to both stabilize Everest as a commercial enterprise and generate more revenue for the nation’s tourism industry, there are some sensible policies.
