COVID-19 conquers Mt Everest as Norwegian climber tests positive

KATHMANDU: A Norwegian climber, Erlend Ness, became the first to test positive for COVID-19 in Mount Everest base camp on April 15.

He was flown back by helicopter to Kathmandu, where he was hospitalised, proving that the coronavirus has conquered the world's highest peak.

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According to the sources, Ness tested positive on April 15 but another test on Thursday came back negative, and that he was now staying with a Nepalese family.

Hundreds of other climbers, guides and helpers are now camped at the base of Everest, according to Austrian Lukas Furtenbach, an ace mountain guide. If all of them are not tested immediately and safety precautions are not taken, the virus could spread.

Any outbreak could end the climbing season prematurely, just as a window of good weather opens up in May, he said.

Furtenbach, who is leading an expedition of 18 climbers to Mount Everest and its sister peak Mount Lhotse, believes there could be more than one case on the mountain because the Norwegian had spent weeks with many others.

According to sources, there are no active cases on the mountain right now.

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Mira Acharya, director of the department of mountaineering, said she didn't have any official knowledge about the COVID-19 events, only records of pneumonia and altitude sickness.

Due to the pandemic, mountaineering was suspended last year, and climbers returned to Everest this year for the first time since May 2019.

The famous spring climbing season in Nepal which boasts eight of the world's highest peaks, runs from March to May.

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