An 18-member team from Bahrain, including a member of the royal family, has arrived in Kathmandu to climb Mount Lobuche in Khumbu region and Mount Manaslu in North Gorkha.

According to the Nepali Embassy in Bahrain, the team left Sheikh Isha Airbase in Bahrain for Nepal on a special flight at 12:30 pm.

According to the Tribhuvan International Airport Office, the plane carrying 18 people including Bahrain’s Prince Nasir bin Hamid Al Khalifa landed in Kathmandu at 11:000 am on Wednesday. The team was welcomed at the airport by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Mingma Sherpa, president of the Seven Summit Treks which will take charge of the ascent, the plane that brought Prince Khalifa and his team will return to Bahrain on Wednesday.

According to Sherpa, the team will stay in quarantine at the Kathmandu-based Gokarna Forest Resort for six days and only after that will they travel to Lukla by air.

The team is scheduled to walk to the base camp of Mount Lobuche from Lukla.

According to the Embassy, the team includes 15 Bahrainis and three British nationals serving in the Bahrain Defense Force. According to Tourism Board CEO Dhananjay Regmi, the team will spend about two months in Nepal.

After climbing two mountains, the team’s main goal is to climb Mt. Everest in the spring of next year. CEO Regmi said that the team will be climbing Lobuche and Manaslu as a part of their preparation for to scale Mount Everest.

He said that the mountaineering campaign by the foreign delegates would help in flourishing Nepal’s tourism business, which has taken a hit down due to COVID-19.