Here’s a report out of Kathmandu that says China plans to cut the number of climbers who can scale Mt. Everest from the Tibet side.

Climbers like to climb Everest from Chinese-controlled Tibet because they pay lower fees and the rules are looser.

But there’s been a furor in the mountains lately. And the Olympics are coming up. So it appears China is cutting the number of permits.

You may have seen stories six weeks ago about how European climbers watched – and shot video – as Chinese soldiers gunned down unarmed Tibetans trying to flee to India to gain an audience with the Dalai Lama. One 17-year-old nun was killed and another seriously wounded.   

The Kathmandu story linked above notes that the China Tibet Mountaineering Association in Lhasa negotiated the fewer climbs of Everest, beginning in spring of 2007, in part to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Torch relay which will see the torch carried to the Everest summit.

A trial run of the relay is planned for the spring. And in case anything goes wrong, there may not be so many mountaineers lurking about with video cameras.