Kathmandu, Nepal (BBN)-Sherpas have threatened to boycott the climbing of Mount Everest that could seriously disrupt the rest of the climbing season.

The move was taken during an emergency joint meeting of guides and support staff, expedition leaders and climbers held at the base camp on 20 April, said a press release of Nepal Mountaineering Association.

The emergency meeting was called after 13 guides were killed and three went missing in an avalanche that hit the slope of Mt Everest at 5,900m near Camp I in Khumbu Icefall Friday morning, the press release added.

The Sherpas, during the meeting, expressed their grave concerns over the issues of social security and also issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government to address their 12-point demands and threaten to stop climbing if the demands are not met.

They also forwarded their demands to Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal.

The full list of demands as follows:

• Increment in immediate relief announced for the victims

 

• Provide Rs 1 million each to families of deceased

 

• Establishment of a memorial park in the memory of the deceased in Kathmandu

 

• Cover all expenses for treatment of the injured

 

• Provide Rs 1 million to critically hurt who cannot rejoin mountaineering activities

 

• Set up mountaineering relief fund with 30 per cent of royalty collected from issuing permits to different mountains

 

• Double the insurance amount to the mountaineering workers

 

• Provide additional chopper rescue to mountaineering support staff if insurance fails to cover the cost

 

• Provide perks and salaries, except summit bonus, through concerned agencies to Sherpas if they want to call off climbing this season

 

• Manage chopper to bring logistics and equipment from different camps if mountaineers decide to abandon climbing this season

 

• Don’t take action against SPCC icefall doctors if they refuse to fix ropes and ladders on the route this season

 

• Let the expedition members to call off this season’s climbing if they wish so

Hundreds of people, both foreigners and Sherpas, have died trying to reach the world's highest peak.

About a quarter of them were killed in avalanches, experts say.

The worst recorded disaster on Everest had been a fierce blizzard on May 11, 1996, that caused the deaths of eight climbers, including famed mountaineer Rob Hall, and was later memorialised in a book, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer.

More than 4,000 climbers have reached the top of Everest since 1953, when the mountain was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

BBN/ANS/AD/21Apr14-3:00pm (BST)