Amateur climbers will be banned from scaling Mount Everest to put off selfie-hunting influencers as 'extreme tourism' craze fuels overcrowding
Selfie hunting Influencers will be banned from scaling Mount Everest under a new law set to deter amateurs searching for 'extreme tourism' and overcrowding.
Mountaineers will now have to prove they have climbed a 7,000 metre peak before attempting the world's tallest mountain.
Overcrowding has been an issue for a number of years at Everest with a record 1,263 attempts in 2024 on the mountain that straddles the Nepal-China border, Geographical UK figures show.
This has led to queues on the mountainside and left it littered with rubbish and discarded gear while questions of safety have been brought forth.
The problem has been exacerbated by underprepared thrill seekers looking for so-called extreme tourism and influencers attempting to tackle the monumental climb without proper training.
Singaporean couple Rakcent Wong and Carol Tan had to be rescued by helicopter after they decided to try to bring their four-year-old son, Atlas, to base camp.
They documented their dangerous trip online and faced widespread criticism after Atlas suffered acute altitude sickness.
A 22-year-old YouTube influencer called Inoxtag climbed the mountain after just a year of training. He published his €1m (£830,000) trip on an online documentary but caught flak after claims he was advertising the perilous climb to his young followers.
22-year-old YouTube influencer Inoxtag climbed Everest after just a year's training but caught flak online after claims he was advertising the dangerous climb to his young followers
American influencer Devon Levesque did a backflip on the summit of Everest in 2024
Another influencer, American Devon Levesque, did a backflip on the summit of the mountain in 2024, which also raised eyebrows about safety and promoting extreme tourism.
These climbs can and often are deadly, as a 59-year-old schoolteacher from India Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus found out in 2023. She died on the mountain just a few hundred feet above basecamp while trying to become the first Asian person to summit Everest with a pacemaker against the advice of her team.
To climb the 8,849m mountain under the new laws, climbers 'shall be issued a permit only after an applicant provides proof of having previously summited at least one mountain higher than 7,000 metres in Nepal', Himal Gautam, the director of Nepal's Tourism Department, told The Telegraph.
The Nepalese government hopes that tighter regulation on Everest will promote its 462 other mountains for commercial climbing, Mr Gautam added.
However, the new laws have been met by some resistance, notably from Adriana Brownlee, a British climber who became the youngest woman to climb all 14 of the world's 26,247ft mountains in 2022 at the age of 23.
She said that the laws may 'go beyond what's necessary' and might not end up increasing safety.
'It's a very significant bill and will definitely bring down the number of climbers a lot, but may not improve safety. It will only cause overcrowding on other peaks now,' Ms Brownlee said.
She claims that, by her own experience, a peak of only 6,500 metres is enough to prepare for an Everest ascent.
Singaporean couple Rakcent Wong and Carol Tan and their four year old son Atlas (pictured) had to be rescued by helicopter after they decided to take him to Everest base camp where he suffered acute altitude sickness
Overcrowding has been an issue on Everest for years. The week inexperienced British climber Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, died in May 2019, there were photos of queues on a ridge above 8,000 metres in the 'death zone'
Everest is 'extremely overcrowded and there are a lot of inexperienced mountaineers', Ms Brownlee admitted, but she said that Nepal should include its Ama Dablam peak (6,812 metres) and Mount Aconcagua (6,981 metres) in Argentina as two major training peaks for Everest.
More than 200 bodies of climbers still lie on the mountain, some of which have even become landmarks to prospective summiters - like the famous body nicknamed 'Green Boots' who was moved several years ago.
Five people died on Everest during the 2025 Spring climbing season. Overcrowding is often blamed as a reason for these deaths.
This was the case for Robin Haynes Fisher, a 44-year-old inexperienced British climber who died on his descent from the summit in May 2019 due to altitude sickness.
This was one of the busiest years on record for attempts to climb the mountain. Days earlier, he had admitted before setting off that he feared the dangers of overcrowding.
That week there had been photos of queues of climbers snaking along a ridge over 8,000 metres high - above the 'death zone' where oxygen levels are a third lower than at sea level and the body begins to shut down.
Mr Fisher was one of 11 deaths that season.
The law banning amateurs was passed unanimously by Nepal’s upper house, and it will now move to the house of representatives (lower house) to be voted through before a March 5 election.
Everest has been littered with rubbish and gear for decades but the new law is introducing a fund to clean it up
It is then expected to come into force within three months.
The bill also introduces mandatory insurance, age and experience thresholds for climbers, and the introduction of an environmental protection fund to remove decades of rubbish in the Himalayas.
It also allows authorities to declare missing climbers legally dead after a year.
