Mountaineering, Trekking Permits and Protected Areas

A single fourteen-day itinerary in Nepal can require permissions from four different authorities, priced on four different bases, none of them aware of the others. Which ones apply depends entirely on where the route goes. An operator who gets it wrong finds out at a checkpost.

The four permit regimes

Expeditions above the trekking-peak threshold are permitted by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation through the Department of Tourism, under the Mountaineering Regulation 2059 (2002) made under the Tourism Act 2035 (1978). Royalty is the principal charge. It is set by peak and by team, with additional-member rates above the base team size.

Trekking peaks work differently. The Nepal Mountaineering Association, a private national alpine club rather than a government body, is authorised to issue climbing permits for 27 peaks. An association issuing state permissions for a defined list of mountains is unusual. It means an operator’s compliance counterparty changes depending on which side of the list the objective sits.

Restricted areas are controlled by the Department of Immigration rather than the tourism authorities. The permit is priced per person per week or per ten days, varies by season in several areas, and is issued only to groups, through a registered trekking agency. An individual trekker cannot obtain one at all.

Protected areas belong to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029 (1973), whose current amendment status we have not re-verified. Entry is charged separately from everything above. The network is extensive: 12 national parks, one wildlife reserve, one hunting reserve, six conservation areas and 13 buffer zones, together 23.39% of Nepal’s land area. Most of the well-known trekking routes cross at least one.

Layered over all of it is the Trekkers’ Information Management System card, administered by the Nepal Tourism Board with the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal. TIMS moved online on 1 April 2023 and is issued at tims.ntb.gov.np, at NPR 1,000 for SAARC nationals and NPR 2,000 for others. To issue cards an agency must hold current registration, tax clearance, TAAN membership and a valid Department of Tourism renewal certificate. That is how the card requirement also enforces agency registration.

Restricted-area permit fees

The schedule below is published by TAAN, which attributes it to the Department of Immigration. We did not obtain the underlying gazette notice, and it should be confirmed before anyone relies on it commercially.

Area	Base fee	Extension
Upper Mustang	USD 500 per person for 10 days	USD 50 per person per day
Upper Dolpa	USD 500 per person for 10 days	USD 50 per person per day
Manaslu, September to November	USD 100 per person per week	USD 15 per person per day
Manaslu, December to August	USD 75 per person per week	USD 10 per person per day
Manang, September to November	USD 100 per person per week	USD 15 per person per day
Tsum Valley, September to November	USD 40 per person per week	USD 7 per person per day
Humla	USD 50 per person per week	USD 10 per person per day
Lower Dolpa	USD 20 per person per week	USD 5 per person per week
Taplejung	USD 20 per person per week, first 4 weeks	USD 25 per person per week thereafter

Two features of that schedule repay attention. Seasonal pricing in Manaslu, Manang and Tsum Valley loads the charge onto the autumn peak, when 31.3% of Nepal’s annual arrivals occur. And the extension rate in Upper Mustang and Upper Dolpa is steep. At USD 50 a day beyond the first ten, a 21-day itinerary carries USD 1,050 per person in permit alone, against USD 500 for ten days. That pricing is a large part of why commercial itineraries in those two areas cluster tightly around the ten-day mark.

Expedition royalties

The royalty schedule under the Mountaineering Regulation 2059 has been amended six times. The most recent amending instrument is the Mountaineering (Sixth Amendment) Regulation 2081, which the Department of Tourism publishes on its rules page.

We could not read it. The file did not return on repeated attempts, and the Department’s own Mountaineering in Nepal: Facts and Figures 2026, which contains a section headed “Updated Royalty and Insurance Provisions,” returned only its contents pages.

Royalty figures for Nepali peaks are among the most widely reproduced numbers in adventure travel writing, and almost every circulating version predates the sixth amendment. Rather than repeat a figure we cannot date, we give the structure and leave the amounts to the Department. Royalties are set per person. They differ by peak, by height band, by season and by route on Sagarmatha, and they carry additional-member rates above the base team size. Anyone pricing an expedition should get the current schedule from the Department directly, and should ask specifically for the date the current figures took effect.

Conditions attached to a permit

The regulation attaches conditions to expedition permission that carry real costs and real liabilities of their own, quite apart from the royalty.

A liaison officer is appointed by the government to each expedition, drawn from the civil service, the security forces or the ranks of experienced Nepali climbers, and the expedition carries the cost. The Department publishes a liaison officer diary as a prescribed form, which shows how the reporting obligation is meant to be discharged. The gap between the officer’s formal duties and what happens at altitude has drawn complaint from the industry for two decades.

A garbage deposit scaled to the elevation of the peak is lodged before departure and refunded on proof of proper waste management, with waste categorised into what may be disposed of locally, what must be recycled and what must be carried out of the country.

Insurance of expedition staff is compulsory, with minimum sums specified for liaison officers and for base camp workers. We could not confirm the current amounts and do not state them. The obligation itself is not optional, and it is the item operators competing on price most often underprice.

The size of the market

Restricted-area trekking is a small business. In 2023, 6,854 trekkers entered restricted areas, about 4.4% of the 154,262 arrivals giving trekking or mountaineering as their purpose and under 0.7% of all arrivals. Sagarmatha itself had 9,825 summiteers in total up to December 2025, accumulated over seven decades.

Small numbers, attached to a disproportionate share of Nepal’s international identity, its regulatory attention and its political controversy. They are also high-yield. A USD 500 permit, plus royalty, plus park fees, plus a guided package, produces per-visitor revenue an order of magnitude above the USD 41 daily average across all visitors.

The permit regime is best read as the pricing mechanism for a narrow, high-value market rather than a tax on a mass one. Every amendment since 2002 has moved the price upward. An operator building a five-year model on today’s royalty is building on a variable the government has changed six times.

Sources

1. पर्वतारोहण नियमावली, २०५९ (Mountaineering Regulation, 2059)

   Government of Nepal, published by the Department of Tourism · 2002 (2059 BS) — in force, as amended to the sixth amendment · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: That expedition permission is applied for to the Ministry through the Department of Tourism, that royalties are set by peak and by team size, that a liaison officer is appointed, that a refundable garbage deposit scaled to elevation is required, and that insurance of expedition staff is compulsory.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

2. Rules — Department of Tourism (Mountaineering (Sixth Amendment) Regulation 2081)

   Department of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation · 2081 BS; posted to the Department's rules page in Chaitra 2082 (March 2026) · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: That a sixth amendment to the Mountaineering Regulation exists and is the most recent amending instrument published by the Department.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

3. Mountaineering in Nepal: Facts and Figures 2026

   Department of Tourism · 2026 · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: That the Department publishes updated royalty and insurance provisions and a garbage-deposit regime, that peaks are managed separately by the Department and by the Nepal Mountaineering Association, and that 9,825 people had summited Sagarmatha up to December 2025.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

4. Trekking Permit Fees

   Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal, attributing the schedule to the Department of Immigration · Accessed August 2026 · Tier 6 — Professional or news source

   Supports: The restricted-area permit fee schedule by area, duration and season, and the requirement that permits be issued only to groups through registered trekking agencies.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

5. TIMS Overview

   Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal · Accessed August 2026 · Tier 6 — Professional or news source

   Supports: That TIMS is administered by the Nepal Tourism Board with TAAN, moved online on 1 April 2023, and costs NPR 1,000 for SAARC nationals and NPR 2,000 for others.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

6. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation

   Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation · Accessed August 2026 · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: That Nepal has 12 national parks, one wildlife reserve, one hunting reserve, six conservation areas and 13 buffer zones covering 23.39% of the country's land area.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

7. Nepal Tourism Statistics 2023

   Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (published via Nepal Tourism Board) · 2024 · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: 6,854 trekkers in restricted areas in 2023 (Table 5.2) and 154,262 arrivals stating trekking and mountaineering as their purpose (Table 4.1).

   Accessed 26 August 2026

8. Nepal Mountaineering Association

   Nepal Mountaineering Association · Accessed August 2026 · Tier 6 — Professional or news source

   Supports: That the Association is the body authorised to issue climbing permits for 27 peaks in Nepal.

   Accessed 26 August 2026