Nepal urges Everest climbers to return used oxygen canisters amid Covid crisis

Climbers and their Sherpa guides were estimated to have carried at least 3,500 oxygen bottles this season - now they need to be refilled

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Nepal is so short of oxygen canisters that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to bring back their empties instead of abandoning them on mountain slopes, an official said on Monday, as it struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus.

The country issued climbing permits to more than 700 climbers for 16 Himalayan peaks - 408 to Mount Everest - for the April-May climbing season in a bid to get the mountaineering industry and tourism back up and running.