Everest Summiteers Summit 2026: Kami Rita Honoured as Nepal Charts a Sustainable Himalayan Future

Every spring, Nepal's mountains make headlines for who reached the top. This year, for two days in late June, the conversation turned to something harder: how to keep those mountains worth climbing at all. The Everest Summiteers Summit (ESS) 2026 wrapped up in Kathmandu on 24 June, gathering summiteers, policymakers, scientists and conservationists under a single, pointed theme — "Uniting Voices for the Future of the Himalaya."

The timing was deliberate. The summit landed at the close of a spring season that broke Nepal's own records — and exposed, once again, how lopsided the country's mountain economy has become.

A record season as the backdrop

Nepal's Department of Tourism issued permits to 944 climbers from 76 countries across 30 peaks this spring, banking more than US$6.9 million (over Rs 1.02 billion) in royalties — the highest on record. But the distribution tells the real story: 410 climbers on Everest alone generated nearly US$6 million, or about 87 percent of the entire season's royalty take.

Of the 410 on Everest, 313 were men and 97 women — among the strongest female turnouts the mountain has seen. The climbers came from across the world, but a handful of markets dominated the rope lines.

Beyond Everest, Lhotse drew 86 climbers, Ama Dablam 92, Makalu 54 and Kanchenjunga 34 — and Nepali star Nirmal Purja notched his 50th 8,000-metre summit on Dhaulagiri in April.

Honouring the people behind the peaks

The summit's emotional centre was its awards. Kami Rita Sherpa — the Thame-born guide who has stood on Everest's summit more times than any human alive — received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The recognition of He Jing, the first woman to complete all fourteen 8,000ers without bottled oxygen, signalled where the sport is heading: lighter, bolder, and far more international than the Everest-or-nothing image suggests.

The agenda: climate, safety and women on the mountain

Behind the ceremony sat a serious working agenda. Sessions ran on climate change and resilience, sustainable tourism, mountain safety and rescue preparedness, women's participation, and — tellingly — climate-adaptation financing for mountain communities. The guest list read like a who's-who of Himalayan science and conservation: WWF, ICIMOD, IUCN, ZSL and the NTNC, with Nepal's Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister addressing the gathering on the country's commitment to sustainable mountain tourism. The MoU with outdoor-gear company Pelliot tied the talk to something concrete: safety equipment and sustainable-expedition standards.

For anyone planning a trip, the takeaway is simple: the Everest region is busier, better regulated and more safety-conscious than ever — which is good news if you go with an operator that takes the new standards seriously. If you want to walk into that amphitheatre yourself, our 12-day Everest Base Camp trek follows the classic Lukla–Namche–Kala Patthar line, while the Three High Passes circuit rewards stronger legs with the region's wildest crossings. Climbers eyeing their first Himalayan summit often start on Ama Dablam's base-camp approach before stepping up.

Source: The Himalayan Times — Everest Summiteers Summit 2026 coverage and Department of Tourism spring-season permit data.

Cover photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).