KATHMANDU: The Spring 2026 Everest climbing season is on course to set a historic summit record, with the total number of successful ascents already approaching 900 as of May 25, according to Khimlal Gautam, Chief of the Department of Tourism's field office at Everest Base Camp.

Gautam, who spent over a month at base camp monitoring expeditions this season, said the figure could cross 1,000 before the season closes in four days, based on the number of climbers who were ascending from Camp III on the morning of May 25 and were expected to make summit bids the following day. 

"This is an approximate figure, the exact count will come after the departmental briefing," he noted.

The season has also been relatively safe. Gautam confirmed four fatalities so far, two Indian and two Nepali climbers,  putting the casualty rate at below 0.5 per cent against the near-900 summit figure, which he described as low for a season of this scale. Another death was recorded below basecamp.

"The current season was an unexpectedly successful one. It was a low-casualty season as well," Gautam said, adding that he would now submit a full report to the Department of Tourism covering all details and challenges encountered during the season.

This season a hanging serac above the Everest Base Camp at the Khumbu Icefall threatened to derail the climbing season and a delayed opening of the route to Camp I. 

"There were some unexpected challenges which will be mentioned in my report. But overall, the current season was a good one," he said.

The season's numbers, Gautam said, point to the need for fresh thinking about Everest's management. "This situation clearly shows that we now need to think about Everest expeditions from a new perspective," he wrote in a social media post reflecting on the data.

Gautam is one of Nepal's most distinguished mountaineering officials. The only civil servant to have summited Everest twice, he is also the highest-ranking government official from Nepal to have reached the top. He led the landmark 2019 government expedition that re-measured Everest's exact height using state-of-the-art survey technology, alongside fellow surveyor Rabin Karki, the first surveyors to summit the peak for that purpose.