Mumbaikar loses 1 year to Mt. Everest due to Corona
Harshvardhan Joshi, a 24 y/o mountaineer and sustainable development ambassador from Vasai. He running a campaign named Sangharsh Mission Mt. Everest 2020 to promote the use of Solar Energy. Mount Everest stands tall at the height of 29,029 feet which is 8848 metres. It takes around 63 days to successfully complete the expedition.
Harshvardhan Joshi was supposed to start his expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest on 1st April 2020, which is now postponed by a year to 1st April 2021 as the summit window for climbing Everest comes just once a year. The total expense of climbing Everest goes above ₹30 Lakhs.
The amount paid towards his expedition is carry forwarded to the next climbing season with some cancellation charges. Although he faced some monetary losses, he feels sorry for the loss of Nepal. The Nepal government makes $4M (~₹30 crores) from Everest permits, but above it there's a $100M industry based around mountaineering which is the primary, in most cases the only source of income for thousands of families in Nepal. Harshvardhan feels sorry for the loss of employment, income for people in Nepal who are already trying hard to recover from the earthquakes that devastated their country a few years ago.
More than 82% of Nepal works on less than 2$ a day and many of them just find employment during the climbing seasons.
Harshvardhan Joshi says that he is definitely aiming to summit during spring 2021 and won't give up on his dream of climbing the highest mountain on earth - Mt. Everest.