The Mountaineering Association of the Tibet Autonomous Region has presented stricter rules on the parties of international mountaineering organizations to better protect their safety, Xinhua reported on Monday.

As the autumn mountaineering season in the Himalayas has already begun, the Association has already granted mountaineering licenses to nearly 180 non-Chinese climbers - of which half are guides - meaning that every mountaineer will be on the journey with a guide.

Moreover, no interim parties will receive mountaineering licenses in Tibet. According to the Association, from July to September in the past years, some individual climbers would form interim parties in Nepal and apply for licenses together. However, these parties lacked effective management and mountaineers would start climbing on their own once they reached the mountains. If anything happened, they could not be reached through their parties.

In order to remove such risks, the Association set a  registration deadline and only granted licenses to parties that met standards in size, credentials and other areas.

Furthermore, all mountaineers have been asked to recruit two party leaders: One general and one Sherpa. The Sherpa leader will be in charge of the climbing security in high-elevation areas and environmental protection in mountains. The general leader will have to reach the camps with the parties to ensure communication. Both will need to update of the mountaineering situation to the Association whenever required.

In addition to the above, liaison officers have increased to three from one at every mountain open for climbing and with a height of over 8,000 meters. One is in charge of security work, including training and rescue, one focuses on environmental protection and one takes care of mountaineering affairs including transportation and other things, said the Association.

(Top picture: Mountaineers in Tibet /VCG Photo )