Adventurers Stuck In Nepal After Reaching Everest

Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

These adventurers have been stranded in Nepal after their plans to climb Mount Everest were scuppered by coronavirus with one only finding out their fate at the mountain.

The pair named Nathan Chesini, 28, and Manolo Frediani, 31, from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, are stuck in the mountain nation of Nepal after all the borders were shut.

Frediani had travelled to Nepal with the plan of climbing three trails on Mount Everest but when he found out about international flights being cancelled in the COVID-19 crisis he was already at Mount Everest and decided to only climb to the mountain’s Base Camp.

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Chesini was in the area after passing through a host of countries in the previous five months and ended up meeting Frediani for the first time in the Nepalese village of Lukla.

The pair abandoned plans of climbing Everest and instead decided to take a plane to the capital Kathmandu, landing on 28th March.

They have been waiting since then for spaces on a commercial flight to Brazil or for the Brazilian government to intervene.

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Frediani said: “It is not a critical situation, without food, without water. It’s just that you plan a 20-day trip and then end up with meaningless plans, because everything is stuck.

“Nobody wants the government to pay for anything. The only thing (we want) is that we can get back to our country. After all, I didn’t plan to live in Nepal. I planned to come and go.”

Chesini said: “It seems that they will be closed for another three weeks. The Brazilian government is indifferent. We are in daily contact with the embassy. They are extremely helpful and kind to us, but the government does not release any help.

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“Whether it’s paying for a hotel for those who are running out of money or the prospect of being repatriated, which is the only way to return, unfortunately. If we wait for commercial flights we will stay here for a month.

“The best thing is to go through this moment of crisis next to those we love, and not alone here on the other side of the world.”

The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there are 15 of the country’s citizens in the same situation in Nepal, along with thousands of others around the world.

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The Ministry said: “The priority remains to accommodate them on the commercial flights that still exist. Specific cases of airspace closure are analysed individually to enable the best solution to achieve the objective of repatriation.”

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