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KATHMANDU: Scores of climbers waiting on the southern Nepalese
approach to Mount Everest will be allowed to proceed after the
Chinese Olympic torch team made it to the roof of the world,
officials said Thursday.
Nepal imposed strict new regulations this season
in an effort to prevent pro-Tibet protests on Everest as Olympic
hosts China took a specially adapted torch via the Tibetan approach
to the summit of the world’s highest peak.
“Mountaineers will be allowed to move towards
the summit from Friday,” said Prem Rai, Nepal’s tourism ministry
spokesman.
The upper reaches of the mountain had been
closed while Chinese and Tibetan climbers carried the Olympic torch
to the summit from the northern side, reaching the top Thursday in
an event broadcast live on Chinese television.
Although climbers will now be allowed to try for
the summit, pro-Tibet protests remain banned and armed soldiers will
remain on the mountain for the whole of the spring season, the
official said.
“Security forces will continue to search all
the expedition teams and strictly monitor the activities of each
individual,” said Rai.
“We still don’t want to see anti-China
activities taking place and we don’t want to spoil our ties with
China,” the tourism official said.
Expedition organizers, who had warned that
Nepal’s Everest season could have been a washout if the Olympic
torch team had been delayed beyond May 10, welcomed the lifting of
the climbing ban.
“We are extremely relieved that the Olympic
flame has reached the summit. All of us mountaineers were very
worried that we would not have enough time,” Ang Tsering Sherpa,
the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said.
-- AFP
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