Hundreds of climbers are set to return to Everest for the first time in April after a year of the coronavirus pandemic, during which access to the mountain was closed, according to Reuters.
According to the agency, more than 300 foreign climbers “are likely to try to climb the 8,849-meter mountain at the start of the climbing season in April.”
Eight of the 14 tallest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, are wholly or partly in Nepal, and hundreds of foreign climbers generate millions of dollars in revenue each year for this strained country.
Nepal closed access to its mountains in March 2020 as part of tough measures to combat cornavirus infection. According to the agency, since the beginning of the pandemic in Nepal, 274,973 people have been infected with the coronavirus, 3,012 have died. 104 new cases of the disease were registered on Wednesday.