Facing virus woes, Nepal reopens to adventurers

Adventurers looking to scale Nepal's Himalayan peaks and trek its mountain trails can finally do so for the first time in seven months, as the country reopens to foreigners even as the coronavirus pandemic has left it short of hospital beds.

Foreign visitors are a major source of income for Nepal and the closure has impacted the estimated 800,000 people who work in the tourism industry.

For now the reopening will come with restrictions and mainly be limited to those seeking to to climb or trek its famous peaks. Nepal is home to the eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including the tallest, Mount Everest.

"The government has not opened the country for all tourists, but only to a section of visitors who we know we are able to control and manage," said Rudra Singh Tamang, director general of Nepal's Department of Tourism.

Rather than a visa on arrival, visitors now need to get prior approval, give details of their itinerary, hire a local outfitting company and have health insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment. They are required to take a coronavirus test before leaving their home country, stay for a week in quarantine at a hotel in Kathmandu and then take another coronavirus test before being allowed to go up the mountains.

Local guides, porters, cooks and helpers who will be part of any mountaineering support team will be required to take coronavirus tests and prove they have been living in areas with no infections for the past two weeks.

Spring is the mountaineering season when foreign climbers come to Nepal to attempt scale the highest peaks, while the fall is popular for trekkers who come to hike the mountain trails. The spring mountaineering season was canceled in March when the scale of the pandemic became clear and was followed by the country mostly closing its borders to outsiders.

Nepal has reported 176,500 coronavirus infections since the pandemic began and 984 deaths. The nation of 30 million people is running short on hospital beds and the government has asked patients with less than life threatening symptoms to stay at home in isolation.

Earlier in the fall season, a team of mountaineers from Bahrain was given special permission to scale Mount Lobuche and Mount Manaslu. They were made to follow all the new rules placed by the government and reported no problems.

The success of the expedition was celebrated by the mountaineering community in Nepal, as was the government decision to reopen to all qualified mountaineers and trekkers in October.

The pandemic hit as Nepal was preparing to double the number of tourist arrivals with a government campaign declaring 2020 as Visit Nepal year.

People in the mountains have been the hardest hit. They normally work these spring and fall seasons to make enough money to last them all year.

The prospect of trekkers and mountaineers returning to the mountain has been a welcome piece of news for those in the industry.

"The entire mountaineering community in Nepal including the entrepreneurs, guides, and workers are really excited the government is reopening the mountains to foreign climbers," said Ang Tshering of the Asian Trekking in Kathmandu. "We are really hopeful the tourism sector will revive soon."

He said there is particular interest in the spring 2021 climbing season, especially for Mount Everest.

Still, with the virus still surging in many parts of the world, it will take time to for things to return to normal.

On a recent day in the tourist hub of Thamel in Kathmandu, most of the shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels remained closed. The shops normally selling down jackets, tents, hiking boots and survival equipment were mostly closed and those that were open had few if any customers.

(Image Credit: AP)