BEIJING: China is to impose new age limits on mountaineers seeking to climb in Tibet, authorities said today, after an American 13-year-old became the youngest person ever to scale Mount Everest.
The new age limits will come into effect when the climbing season restarts in September, an official at the China Tibet Mountaineering Association told AFP, saying it was “for the safety of the climbers”.
The official declined to give details of the new rules but expedition organisers in Nepal said China was planning to restrict permits to climbers between the ages of 18 and 60, except in exceptional circumstances.
In Nepal licences to scale Everest are given to climbers over the age of 16. China does not currently have an age limit and American teenager Jordan Romero carried out his controversial ascent of the 8,848-metre mountain from the Tibet side.
