Mount Everest Has a New Rivalry: The US and China Are Racing to Fly Cargo Drones on the World's Highest Mountain
A Chinese drone can now haul a season's oxygen bottles up the Khumbu Icefall in ten minutes flat. When an American rival tried to join it this spring, Nepal grounded them both.
A Chinese-made drone can now ferry a full load of oxygen bottles from Everest Base Camp to Camp I in about ten minutes — a supply run that used to take a Sherpa six or seven hours through the Khumbu Icefall. An American rival wanted the same airspace this spring. Nepal grounded both, then had to decide which one it trusted more.
Key facts
- China's DJI FlyCart 100 has flown cargo on Everest since April 2025 and can carry roughly 100kg at sea level, about 40kg at altitude
- The American Freefly Alta X Gen 2 (15.88kg payload) was only demonstrated at Base Camp, 5,364m, before Nepal's Home Ministry halted the trial
- Nepal's Home Ministry suspended all cargo drone flights on 30 April 2026, citing unspecified security concerns; the ban was lifted five days later, on 5 May — but only for the Chinese drone
- Drone flights have cut a Base Camp-to-Camp I supply run from 6–7 hours of Sherpa load-carrying to about 10 minutes
The operator caught in the middle is Airlift Technology, a Nepali logistics startup that holds a tripartite agreement with the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality to move supplies and garbage between Base Camp and Camp I. Since spring 2025, its DJI FlyCart 100 drones have hauled oxygen cylinders, ladders, rope and food up the mountain, and hauled trash back down — work that used to fall entirely on Sherpa load-carriers picking through the Icefall's crevasses and collapsing seracs, one of the deadliest stretches of the entire route. In the 2025 season alone, drones lifted roughly 444kg of climbing equipment and 900kg of expedition gear, delivered around 150 oxygen cylinders, and carried down 85 tonnes of waste, up from 77 tonnes the year before.
This spring, Airlift tried to add a second aircraft to the fleet: the American-made Freefly Alta X Gen 2, a heavy-lift industrial drone. It never got past a static demonstration at Base Camp. On the evening of 30 April 2026, Nepal's Home Ministry — acting on advice from the Foreign Ministry — suspended cargo drone operations entirely, including the already-approved Chinese drone. Officials cited unspecified security concerns; one home ministry source later told The Kathmandu Post that part of the alarm came from unverified reports "that Airlift was planning to deploy a robot from an American company." A Base Camp official was blunter: "The home ministry acted quickly, but much of it was based on rumours."
| Drone | Maker | Payload (sea level) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FlyCart 100 | DJI, China | 100kg | Operating (ban lifted 5 May) |
| Alta X Gen 2 | Freefly, USA | 15.88kg | Grounded, no flight permit |
The ban lasted five days. On 5 May, the Chinese FlyCart 100 was cleared to resume flights — the American drone was not. Nepal's Department of Tourism has been candid about how unprepared the rulebook is for any of this: "As there is no law allowing non-human to climb Everest, we sought suggestions from the Tourism Ministry," a department official said. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had specifically flagged the Alta X Gen 2's geo-mapping capability as a concern, given how close Base Camp sits to the Tibet border.
What this means for trekkers
The guide's take
None of this touches the standard Everest Base Camp trek — drones fly the technical ground above Base Camp, not the Khumbu trail you'll walk. What it does show is how fast Everest logistics are changing: in one season, drones have already turned hundreds of dangerous Icefall carries into flights of minutes. That's fewer crossings for the Sherpa crews any expedition depends on above Base Camp, and it's worth asking whichever operator you book with in 2026–2027 how much of their logistics still run the old-fashioned way.
For now, book the trek knowing the mountain above Base Camp is quietly becoming semi-automated — and that a Chinese drone, not an American one, is the one doing the flying this season. Our own 14-day Everest Base Camp trek and Ama Dablam Base Camp trek both end well below this airspace, at Base Camp itself — you'll see the drones, not need one.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
Cover photo: Mehmet Bahtiyar Atasoy via Pexels (Pexels License).
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