NZ climber gets conditional go-ahead for Everest

Leading New Zealand mountaineer Guy Cotter believes he has won permission to take an expedition up Mount Everest next month, but fears tight restrictions are being imposed by the Chinese.

The world's highest mountain sits on the China-Nepal border and the Chinese want to run the Olympic torch rally to the peak ahead of the Olympics.

China has closed the mountain on its side and pressured the Nepalese to limit access as well.

Cotter is scheduled to lead one of 32 expeditions and the only New Zealand expedition to the summit of Everest this year.

In a statement tonight he said it had been indicated that the permits would be issued for Everest this year but they are still unclear on the final wording of the permits and the unusual conditions.

The various groups who may be affected by the wording of the permits still have some trepidation as to the final outcome.

"It seems the Nepalese authorities are delaying their final decision on how they will address the issue of the permits as long as possible.

"We understand that Cabinet must now countersign the document before final permits are issued which is an indication of how this issue is being regarded as a hot potato by the authorities.

"All of our guiding staff have arrived into Nepal and we will be very pleased to get going on the expedition and leave the politics behind in Kathmandu," said Cotter, who has summited four times.

Clients arrive next week and his group want to reach the summit toward the end of May.

"The conditions that the Nepalese government are reported to be applying to the expeditions will keep everybody off the upper mountain between May 1-10 and this will disrupt our climbing plans to a degree and potentially lead to our summit climb being achieved right at the end of May rather than around May 20 as we normally do."

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