Jordi Tosas is fed up with what is currently happening on the eight-thousanders. “China has prescribed the use of oxygen and fixed ropes for all ascents. They prohibit alpine-style and solo ascents. Pakistan will triple the price of permits. Nepal has already turned the mountain control into a mafia,” writes the 56-year-old Spanish top mountaineer on social media. “Just one style! Fuck the system!”
It seems like a deep sigh in view of the first success stories of the fall season on the eight-thousanders in Nepal and Tibet. Now that the ropes have been fixed up to the summit on Manaslu, the first clients have also been guided to the summit at 8,163 meters. The commercial teams dominate the headlines. Swiss mountain guide Josette Valloton completed – with bottled oxygen – her collection of 14 eight-thousanders. US-American Tyler Andrews “ran” from base camp to the summit on a prepared slope in less than ten hours – without bottled oxygen.
Repeating the Magic Line on K2
Jordi Tosas is up to every trick in the Himalayas and Karakoram. In 2004, he was a member of the Spanish team on K 2 that first succeeded to repeat the “Magic Line” via the Southsouthwest Ridge which had been first climbed in 1986 and is said to be one the most difficult routes on the second highest mountain on earth. Later Tosas inter alia opened new routes on the seven-thousanders Palung Ri (in 2006) and Jannu (in 2007) and via the North Face of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu (in 2011), each of them climbing solo. In summer 2021, he also wanted to reach the summit of K2 on a new ascent route with the Brit Rick Allen and the Austrian Stefan Keck. The attempt ended tragically: Allen was caught in an avalanche and died.
Rules in Tibet in place since the beginning of 2020
Tosas is not demonizing commercial mountaineering in general. After all, he himself earns his living as a mountain guide. What he denounces are the bureaucratic and financial hurdles that make it increasingly difficult for ambitious mountaineers to realize projects on the eight-thousanders.
However, the fact that the Chinese-Tibetan authorities prescribe bottled oxygen above an altitude of 7,000 meters and prohibit solo ascents is nothing new. Teams must consist of at least four members. These rules were decided and announced at the end of 2019 – before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it is also no secret that the authorities’ practices in Nepal when dealing with mountaineering are, to put it mildly, open to debate.
Taking an example from Nepal and Tibet
What is new, however, is that Pakistan as the third country on whose territory there are eight-thousanders is now also making major price increases. Two weeks ago, the regional government of Gilgit-Baltistan province decided on new fees for mountaineers and trekking tourists in the Karakoram. In future, each foreign climber will have to pay 5,000 US dollars to climb the 8,611-meter-high K2 in the summer season.
Previously, the Pakistani authorities had charged 12,000 dollars for a team of seven (plus 3,000 dollars for each additional member). For a team of this size, the price now rises to 35,000 dollars (7×5,000 dollars), almost three times the previous amount. The latter also applies to the four other eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Here is also the model calculation for a team of seven: instead of the previous 9,500 dollars per team, it now costs 4,000 dollars per climber in the summer, making 28,000 dollars for the entire team.,
The authorities in Pakistan have probably taken an example from those in Tibet and Nepal, who have been earning very well from mountaineering for years. Compared to the eight-thousanders, the highest mountains in the Karakoram – despite the massive price increase – are still almost “bargains”: the permit for Mount Everest has already cost 11,000 dollars per foreign climber in Nepal since 2015, and the price is set to rise to 15,000 dollars next year. As things stand, that makes 77,000 dollars for a team of seven, and from 2025 it is expected to be 105,000 dollars. For the ascent via the Tibetan side of Everest, 15,800 dollars have been charged per climber since 2020. However, unlike in Nepal, the price includes hotel accommodation and equipment transportation.
How to escape the crowds
Even though the process has been going on for years, Jordi Tosas is not wrong in his criticism. It is becoming more and more expensive for ambitious mountaineers to realize their projects – and increasingly difficult due to the increasing restrictions imposed by the authorities in Tibet, Nepal and Pakistan. As a result, one style is becoming increasingly predominant on the eight-thousanders: commercial climbing. Because it is the only way to make real money.
The only chance for ambitious alpinists to escape the crowds is to choose lower mountains or to approach the eight-thousanders acyclically. Thus, the Everest permit in Nepal in the fall is only half as expensive – and the mountain is deserted. So far (as of 16 September), the Tourism Ministry in Nepal has not issued a single permit for the highest mountain on earth for this season.
