Himalayan mountains to be free amid rising tourism

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August 12, 2025
3 min read

Himalayan mountains to be free amid rising tourism

97 of the Himalayan mountains will be free to climb for the next two years as Nepal hopes to boost tourism in remote areas of the country. This comes as permits to climb Everest, the planet’s highest peak, during its peak season will climb to $15,000 (£11,170) from September. That is the first increase in almost a decade.

The Nepalese tourism board said it wishes to highlight the nation’s “unexplored tourism products and destinations.”

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Mountain climbers to the Himalayan mountains generate a large amount of revenue for the Central Asian country, home to eight of the planet’s ten tallest mountains. Last year, climbing fees generated £5.9 million, three-quarters of which came from Everest.

The Himalayan peaks set to see their fees waived are in the country’s Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces, and tower at heights of between 5,970m and 7,132m high. The provinces are in the western region of Nepal and are some of the poorest and least developed in the country.

It has not been clear, according to the BBC, if Nepal has plans to improve infrastructure or connectivity to the remote areas, or how well communities there would cope with a large amount of climbers.

Historically, these areas have seen little interest with only 68 out of the 97 seeing climbers venture there over the last two years. Everest alone by comparison has seen over 400 permits issued in 2024 alone.

In April last year, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the government to limit the amount of permits issued to climbers to the mountain and multiple other peaks. The capacity of the mountains “must be respected,” it said. Its parliament is debating a new law that would require anyone wanting to scale the planet’s highest peak to have first summitted a mountain over 7,000 in the country. The Kathmandu Post said that the peaks in Karnali and Sudurpaschim are “ideal training grounds” for climbers.

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