First foreigners to climb Mount Everest after Nepal disasters return

Record ID: 103086

  • Title: First foreigners to climb Mount Everest after Nepal disasters return
  • Date: 17th May 2016
  • Summary: KATHMANDU, NEPAL (MAY 16, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLIMBER DAVID LIANO GONZALEZ SAYING: "It's sad to see that iconic part of mountain is gone but, it will be safer for climbers now, it will be faster also."
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2016 07:25
  • Keywords: Mount Everest disaster earthquake quake climbing climb climber David Liano Gonzalez summit Nepal
  • Location: KATHMANDU, MOUNT EVEREST, NEPAL
  • City: KATHMANDU, MOUNT EVEREST, NEPAL
  • Country: Nepal
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA0054I73IO5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Two Britons and a Mexican have become the first foreigners to climb Mount Everest from the Nepali side after disasters in 2014 and 2015 killed dozens and forced mountaineers off the world's tallest peak.
    They reached the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) summit at 8.24 a.m. (0239 GMT) on May 12, officials said.
    David Liano Gonzalez, 36, of Mexico, was one of the three.
    "I feel very fortunate to have been able to summit this year, the last two years have been very complicated -- 2014 because of the avalanche, 2015 because of the earthquake in Nepal," he said after returning to Kathmandu on Monday (May 16).
    Gonzalez, who climbed Mount Everest in 2013, said Hillary Step, a nearly vertical rock on the peak, was damaged after the disasters.
    "It's sad to see that iconic part of mountain is gone but, it will be safer for climbers now, it will be faster also," he said.
    He praised the sherpas for taking the lead in planning the climbing route.
    "Because the sherpas took back their own mountain, they are doing the planning, and we are having the success we are having because of them," Gonzalez said.
    A nine-man sherpa team reached the summit on May 11 after setting ropes on the final stretch in time for the first clear weather window of this year's campaign to open.
    Around 100 were set to climb in the coming days out of a total of 289 who have received Everest permits.
    Numbers are well below the nearly 700 who summitted in 2013, showing how badly climbing and adventure tourism in the Himalayan nation have been hit by the Everest tragedies and last year's quake, which destroyed a million homes.
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