What a horribly written paragraph. I had to read the whole article twice to feel like I understood the story..... so basically, as a concession for robbing people of their tens of thousands of dollars, they've extended those same permits, and a successful summit, all members present or not, will be considered a fulfillment of the permit.

Correct?

Sounds like a pain in the ass, but not really of much consequence to anyone else...?

Or am I missing something?

So basically the idea is to keep them off and/or get them off the mountain as quickly as possible, so's not to encroach on other paying parties in future seasons....

Good of them to at least make some kind of gesture, but I'm sure it's little use to most of those guys that lost their bid.

There's an update on this: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.p ... sID=434150

“The Department of Tourism, in consultation with Secretary at the Ministry Of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Suresh Man Shrestha and others has decided to make necessary procedural arrangements to allow all 318 climbers who abandoned their Mt Everest bid in spring to utilise their permits on individual basis by 2019,” DoT’s Director General Tulsi Gautam told THT. - See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.p ... YWCqV.dpuf

Further down it clarifies that individual permit usage won't forfeit the permits of any others from a group, so it's apparently on an individual basis now through-and-through.