KRITI BHUJU
KATHMANDU, Jan 2: The government is preparing to make detailed profile of all the mountain peaks opened for commercial expedition.
According to officials, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has already held talks with concerned stakeholders to prepare profile of 326 mountain peaks opened for expedition.
“As we do not have detailed information of the peaks opened for mountaineering, we decided to prepare profile of all the peaks opened for commercial expedition. We have already held a meeting with concerned stakeholders regarding this,” Madhu Sudan Burlakoti, joint secretary of MoCTCA, told Republica.
For the purpose, the government has formed a committee comprising representatives from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Department of Survey, Trekking Agencies´ Association of Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) as well as the tourism ministry. Ang Tshering Sherpa, honorary member of World Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) is also in the committee.
“We will soon give official recognition to the committee and form a working committee to find details of all the 326 peaks,” said Burlakoti.
A technical team former under the ministry recently recommended to the government to remove 16 peaks form the list of 326 peaks. Of the 16 peaks, 11 peaks have two different names, four are just viewpoints and one peak doesn´t exist at all.
If the 16 peaks are removed from the list as per the recommendation, the government will prepare profile of only 310 peaks.
According to officials, the detailed profile will include basic information of the mountains like name, location, height, latitude and longitude, climbing routes, and the best time to climb the peak, among others. It will also have different pictures of the peaks.
In the first phase, the committee will prepare profile of peaks above 6,000 meters.
Burlakoti said it will take three to four years to complete the work.
“The most difficult part is finding the picture,” Burlakoti said, adding, “As it is not possible to go and take the picture of all the peaks, we have to request national and international photographers and even tourists guides to send us the pictures.”
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