Posted: Mar 12, 2008 04:57 pm EDT
(MountEverest.net) Confusion rules on both sides of Everest. When and where will the peak be open/closed for climbing?

With no official statements made by either Nepal or China since the CTMA letter sent out to organizers two days ago, climbers are in turmoil. So is Lhasa - and Kathmandu.

China pressures Nepal to close Everest South Side - demonstrators in Lhasa teargased

"Thousands of Chinese paramilitary police and troops have been deployed across the Tibetan capital after hundreds of monks tried to stage a second protest in two days" reported Times today.

Meanwhile, Everest climbing organizers are buried in phone calls from worried clients, while reportedly being put under pressure from both sides’ officials to clam up, or they won't be granted climbing permits to Everest in the future at all.

Some have tried to regroup for the south side; while most expedition leaders are protesting to virtually everyone they know in China, some even flying out to Beijing.

"Yesterday was quite a stressful day for a lot of us here in Kathmandu," one Everest expedition leader wrote in an email after a Skype chat with ExWeb, "and we had several rounds of drinks after finishing the conversation with you."

Everest South closing down?

Rules and rumors changing from one day to the other have put everyone in a bad spot. The current situation is a tremendous abuse of peoples’ dreams, hard earned money and entire businesses.

"I just got a mail from a western reporter in Beijing. He says the Chinese are now saying that the closure of the region is a misunderstanding," one climber told ExWeb today.

In fact, misunderstandings seem the only certainty right now. Chinese pressure on Nepal to close the South side of Everest was initially reported to have been rejected, but now also that option seems in jeopardy.

"It is now being reported that the government of Nepal has worked out a compromise with the Chinese that will allow South side expeditions to continue as long as climbers do not move above Camp III (on the Lhotse Face) from May 1-May 10," a climber wrote on his website today.

121 Million Reasons to close the South Side of Everest

While politics are being mulled, officials seem to forget actual mountain rules. All these delays could lead to a dangerous lack of acclimatization and disregard of weather conditions as stressed out climbers finally rush on summit pushes.

The Chinese seem sure that they will summit on or before May 10. Such arrogance for mountain conditions exactly led to the 1996 Everest disaster described in the novel "Into thin air."

There is a fair chance that the Chinese will not be able to summit on this date which could lead to an extension of the close down period, further decreasing the summit window for Everest climbers who usually need time for more than one summit attempt to begin with.

But why this sudden turnabout by Nepal?

Traditionally a close ally of India and Tibet, Nepal has lately been criticized for returning Tibetan refugees to China, a clear breach of International Refugee Conventions. In the first week of March this year, the country was courted in Kathmandu by the Chinese foreign minister.

On March 7, three days before the closure of the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, China's state-owned Export-Import bank assured Nepal soft loans of 121 Million Euro.

According to the Times today, more than 600 monks tried to march out of the Sera monastery, demanding the release of 11 monks detained by the Chinese after staging a peaceful protest in front of the Jokhang Temple. According to Times another 500 monks simultaneously staged a protest at the Drepung monastery.

The demonstrations are the largest in Lhasa since March 1989 and coincide with demonstrations around the world to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

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