New rule misguided: Everester Double amputee climber calls Nepal mountain ban ‘short-sighted’

Mark Inglis

Vivek Chhetri, 31 December 2017, Darjeeling: Mark Inglis, the only man without both legs to conquer Mount Everest, has termed Nepal's decision to bar double amputees and completely blind people from scaling peaks as a "misguided attempt" to solve the issue of "poorly prepared climbers".

On Thursday, the Nepal government revised the Mountaineering Expedition Regulation, prohibiting solo climbers and persons with double amputation and complete blindness from its mountains from 2018 onwards.

In reply to an email from The Telegraph, Mark Inglis, a New Zealander, said: "It unfortunately is a misguided attempt to try and solve the issue of poorly prepared climbers on Everest, as they are the ones most commonly who get into difficult and often die."

Over 300 people have died in their attempts to scale the 8,848m Everest since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stepped on the highest point on the earth on May 29, 1953.

The 59-year-old Inglis, who is a career scientist, paralympic athlete, winemaker and an international motivational speaker, said: "The primary issue is too many poorly prepared people on the mountain and to try and solve it by locking out several sectors of the climbing community is somewhat short sighted, it is looking for the easy fix to a complex problem."

Inglis's life has been inspirational. As a 23-year-old climber, he, along with his friend Philip Doole, was stuck in a snow cave on Mount Cook in his country for 14 days. Inglis's legs were badly frost bitten and they had to be amputated below the knee.

Bit it did not deter the climber from winning a silver medal for cycling in Sydney Paralympics in 2000 and two years later, he successfully climbed Mount Cook. In 2006, Inglis climbed the Everest.

Inglis said there should be more professionalism, instead of a blanket ban, in mountaineering. "Let's try and ensure the levels of professionalism on the mountain are at a higher," he wrote, a thought endorsed by Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, an Everester from Darjeeling and the son of Tenzing Norgay.

"Mountaineering is a sport and people would want to challenge themselves to a limit. Instead of limiting a section of mountaineers, the authorities must concentrate on ensuring that people who can really climb peaks are allowed. Whether they are amputees or not doesn't matter," Jamling told The Telegraph.

The mountaineer from Darjeeling said merely getting a doctor to certify one's fitness was not enough. "This is not enough. Climbers should be given a certificate from their country's mountaineering association or a designated mountaineering institute. That is more important."