If you were planning on climbing Mt Everest this summer, make alternative plans. In a bid to allow the Olympic torch to safely scale the summit of the world’s highest peak, both approach routes, to the Mt Everest peak - from the Nepal side and the Tibetian side will be off limits.

Nepal’s tourism minister, Prithvi Subba Gurung, told the New York Times in a telephone interview on Thursday that the Chinese government had appealed to his administration to help prevent disruptions to the Olympic torch ceremony. “Expedition teams will not be allowed to ascend Mount Everest from the base camp” on the Nepal side, he said.

Nepal’s decision underscores its vulnerability to pressure from its large and powerful neighbor to the north, even if it involves forsaking lucrative earnings from expedition permits. The tourism industry is among Nepal’s most important revenue streams, and the tourism ministry says permits to scale Everest put $4 million into government coffers last year, a significant amount for one of Asia’s poorest countries.

China’s plan to have the Olympic torch carried into Tibet over Everest has drawn protests from groups that advocate greater autonomy for Tibet and for monks in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. In India, Tibetan exiles were arrested this week as they set off on foot from Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile, with Lhasa as their destination. The march is one of several international protests related to Chinese rule in Tibet, and takes place around the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese control of Tibet in 1959.