They climbed Everest, Covid caught them in the middle of the climb and look what happened | the Chronicle

A foreign expedition climbing Mount Everest suffered a “coronavirus epidemic” which endangered the mission, carried out on the highest peak in the world.

About, Tend Sherpa, director of the Nepalese company Iceland Trekking and Expedition, which supports the organization of the expedition to the Austrian company Furtenbach Adventures, sounded the alarm on the situation of the climbers.

“We estimate that there is a massive coronavirus epidemic in the Everest base camp, the situation is out of control”Sherpa acknowledged.

Regarding the number of patients, the director of the Nepalese company pointed out that during the tests, eight climbers tested positive for Covid-19 and were transferred to a hospital in Kathmandu before the company canceled the ascent to Everest.

“I’m devastated, I’m disappointed, I’m sorry for my clients, I’m sorry for our Sherpas and guides. We’ve tried to do everything right. As good as possible, with the expedition in the middle of a pandemic. We had our security protocols, we were isolated in the base camp and we did exhaustive tests. “, indicated Lukas Furtenbach, director of the Austrian company leading the expedition.

For his part, the representative of the Ministry of Tourism of Nepal Gyanendra Shrestha stressed that he did not know “the number of climbers who left the camp due to fever and cough”, while he regretted that without performing more tests, they could not say anything.

Nepal atraviesa por una alta cantidad de cortagios de coronavirus, por lo que su gobierno impuso restricciones para limitar el advance of the pandemic between las que is included un bloqueo del tráfico aéreo internacional, which already a miles from extranjeros varados y sin poder salir de este Country.

Faced with this situation, China has banned attempts to climb Mount Everest on its side of the world’s highest peak for fear of importing coronavirus cases from neighboring Nepal.