Welp - Mt Everest is in lockdown now

[Leghorn21]

Mount Everest: Nepal's government shuts off mountain amid virus outbreak

Link to tweet

dayam

[canetoad]

1. There's something very

Sci-Fi about this news.

[ZZenith]

2. Geeze- I hope the Marianas Trench stays open.

How about The Moon? Has The Moon been cancelled yet?

[RhodeIslandOne]

14. Bomb the moon!

[SergeStorms]

15. Build a wall!

A big, beautiful wall between earth and it's moon. Yeah, that's the ticket!

[Recursion]

19. Obama bombed the Moon the day he won the Peace Prize

I always found that amusing

https://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/09/probe.moon.crash/index.html

[Initech]

3. Wasn't Mt. Everest already covered in shit?

[2naSalit]

4. Double edged...

It's good for the mountain for nobody to be up there for a while. I live in a tourist heavy spot and I think it would be a good thing for the animals and the flora to have a break from 4 million people tromping through it every year.

Those who rely on tourism are going to take a big hit, but that's been a dark cloud hanging around for a while once the record numbers of tourists arrived with their bad manners. Just a matter of time.

It sucks for all the obvious reasons but here we are.

[StarryNite]

5. Good points!

[dalton99a]

6. +1. Incidentally, the air in China is the cleanest in decades

[2naSalit]

8. I saw that somewhere.

Amazing isn't it. this just might put a dent in the fossil fuels industry and force us into renewable faster. Who knows?

[dalton99a]

9. It is truly powerful evidence

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. There is a significant number of ethnic Sherpa who rely on those tourists...

For income. The climbing season for Everest is tantamount to a ski area used only 3 months a year. As a guide, if you can’t make hay during those 3 months, your entire year is screwed.

[2naSalit]

13. Understood.

Not much any of the tourism workers can do about it. As I said, the industry will take a big hit. It's true here in this area. I expect to see some hard times around here.

[Skittles]

7. oh no

whatever will rich assholes do with their money?

[2naSalit]

10. ...

That's what I love about you!

[SergeStorms]

16. Yachts.

They haven't closed the waterways yet, and since cruise ships aren't sailing for at least two months, it will be necessary to purchase huge yachts, complete with pools, hot tubs, and helicopter pads, for the super rich to escape the hoi palloi and their plebeian diseases.

I have a rubber Zodiac. Do I qualify as one of the elite?

[msongs]

11. well dang I was gonna go climb it next week nt

[Recursion]

18. Bold. I don't think there's ever been a March summit

The peak of the mountain is still in the jet stream...

[Recursion]

17. That effectively means no summit season this year

There's not time -- particularly as the monsoon keeps moving earlier thanks to climate change -- to acclimatize and summit if you can't get to base camp until May 1. Maybe a small Alpine-style team could do it, but none of the guided expeditions will be able to make it in that time frame.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Not just Everest - all tourist visas

From the BBC link:

"We have decided to halt all tourist visas until 30 April," said Narayan Prasad Bidari, Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office.

Nepal on Friday barred climbers from all mountains — including Everest — over the coronavirus pandemic, in a major blow to its tourism industry.

The Himalayan country, which has so far confirmed one coronavirus case, earns 4.4 million dollars a year from climbing permits while the losses to expedition organisers will be even higher.

As well as suspending all climbing permits, Nepal stopped issuing tourist visas on arrival, Yogesh Bhattarai, Minister for Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation told AFP.

“The government has decided to suspend all spring expeditions and scrap permits for the time being. The decision can be reviewed after analysing the global scenario over the coming month,” tourism minister Yogesh Bhattara told AFP.

https://themalaysianreserve.com/2020/03/13/pandemic-shuts-down-everest-as-nepal-suspends-all-permits/

As that story points out, less oxygen at altitude would probably make the reaction to the virus worse.