The first Welshman to climb Mount Everest has said that the adventure tourism industry is becoming a “complete circus”.
Caradoc Jones, 66, told BBC News that the bucket list quest to conquer Everest’s peak has “turned into a complete circus and has almost nothing to do with real mountaineering”.
Mr Jones summited the world’s highest mountain 30 years ago for between £2,000 and £3,000.
The Welshman from Pontrhydfendigaid, Ceredigion, tackled the 8,848.86m challenge on 23 May 1995 with his Danish climbing partner, Michael Knakkergaard Jørgensen.
Mr Jones started the climb, which he described as a “personal battle”, from the Tibet area, encountering a storm around the 8,300m mark.
The mountaineer warned that climbing risks losing “the element of a real adventure” as mountains become popular tourist attractions, reported BBC News.
According to Climbing Magazine, the average climber will fork out between $45,000 (£33,387) and $75,000 (£55,645) on an Everest climb in 2025.
Mr Jones said: “People are quietly doing much harder things in every corner of the world and that’s where the heart of mountaineering and climbing lies I think.”
In April, it was reported that Nepal would pass a law to grant permits to climb Mount Everest only to those who have previously scaled at least one 7,000-metre peak within the country.
The move would mark a major shift for the tourism-dependent country amid concerns over overcrowding and ecological imbalance on the world’s highest mountain.
Nepal, which is heavily reliant on climbing, trekking and tourism, has faced criticism for permitting too many climbers, including inexperienced ones, to try to ascend the mammoth peak.
This often results in long queues of climbers in the ‘death Zone’, an area below the summit with insufficient natural oxygen for survival.
The Integrated Tourism Bill proposed in Nepal’s upper house of Parliament on 18 April is expected to be passed in the National Assembly.
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
