MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP, Nepal (AP) — When the earthquake struck last year and thousands of tons of snow and ice and earth came crashing down the mountain, some feared the climbers might never return to Mount Everest.

But despite back-to-back Everest disasters — the 2015 earthquake and a massive avalanche the year before — hundreds of mountaineers have come back for a new season. With them, they bring millions of dollars to this poverty-wracked nation.

Everest Base Camp has once again turned into a village of bright nylon tents and tea huts. It buzzes with commerce — trekkers on stopovers and mountaineers hoping to reach the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit.

While the numbers of trekkers across Nepal is down about 40 percent compared to last year, according to the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal, the business community still sees that as good news.

"This is much more than what we all had expected," said Pemba Sherpa, who runs a guesthouse in the village of Pheriche, about a day's walk from Base Camp. "The climbers and trekkers who have reached here are very happy — satisfied at the condition of the mountain and not scared anymore."

He's just hoping this year passes quietly: "If there are any problems this year, then we are all finished. It will all end."

Experience has shown, though, that there's always the possibility of more trouble on Everest. More than 250 people have died on the mountain, which was first summited by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953.

"Everest is the same, and the risks that were there are still there," Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, an umbrella group. "It is not like a football field."

The government has issued 289 Everest permits this year to foreign climbers, each of whom paid $11,000 for the chance to reach the summit. They will spend around two months on the mountain, acclimatizing at lower altitudes before making their final attempts to reach the top.

"We have nearly as many climbers as came in previous years," said Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at the Mountaineering Department.

It's been years since the Everest region was truly isolated. Thousands of Sherpas and other Nepalis work as guides and porters, or do everything from renting out mules to serving hot coffee and home-cooked food in trailside cafes and lodges.

"We have no other income except from the tourists," said Bal Krishna Rai, a 15-year-old porter carrying a load in a bamboo basket to Base Camp.

Many Sherpas hope to work as high-altitude guides, a dangerous but lucrative job that can earn someone up to $7,000 over a few months. Support workers can earn half that amount — still a lot in a country where the average per capita income is $700.