Last year marked the first time in decades that Mount Everest wasn't packed with "traffic jams" of aspiring peak baggers.
With climbing permits cancelled and international borders closed as the coronavirus swept the globe, the world's highest mountain peak was temporarily granted a reprieve from disturbing scenes of climbers stepping over bodies on their way to the top.
Those days are over: Nepal has reopened to foreign tourists who test negative for the coronavirus and spend one week in quarantine, allowing the main climbing season to begin under near-normal conditions in April.
Mira Acharya, a tourism official for the Nepalese government, told