SOLUKHUMBU, March 21: A team of eight icefall doctors has reached the base camp to pave the route for mountaineers to the summit of Mt Sagarmatha (Everest). A team led by Ang Sarki Sherpa, an icefall doctor who has been active in route construction for a long time, has reached the base camp.

The team left Namche for the base camp on March 12 and will start the work after paying homage at the Pangboche Monastery and determining the auspicious hour with the guidance of a Lama, said Vice-chairman of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) Lama Kaji Sherpa.

Icefall doctors carve out the route from the base camp to camp II of Mount Everest using stairs and ropes. From the base camp, the world's highest Mount Everest as well as Lhotse and Nuptse are climbed.

Tourists start arriving

Meanwhile, with the onset of the tourist season, foreign tourists have started coming to Khumbu in the Everest region. The number of foreign tourists entering the Khumbu region has been increasing following the onset of spring. According to the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, more than 100 domestic and foreign tourists visit the Khumbu area daily.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourist arrival in the Khumbu was affected for a long time. Tenzing Jangbu Sherpa, a tourism entrepreneur from Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-4, Chukum, said that tourists have started coming in large numbers now. 

The bustle of tourist arrival has increased at the Tejing Hillary Airport in Lukla with up to 20 helicopters and 35 air flights made to Lukla daily, said Dwarika Achhami, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Lukla.

Tourist arrivals in the Khumbu area increase from September to November and from February to May.

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