Gandaki Alpine Club formed to develop mountain tourism

Kathmandu: Gandaki Alpine Club has been formed with the objective of developing mountain tourism in Gandaki province.

The club formed under the chairmanship of international mountain guide Narendra Shahi Thakuri has climbers and expedition operators from Gandaki Province.

“There are many beautiful mountains in Gandaki province, but the expected development of mountaineering has not been achieved,” Shahi told Highlights Tourism.

The club has Suman Gurung as vice president, Binayak Jaya Malla as second vice president, Govind Gurung as secretary, Manraj Gurung as joint secretary, Pur Bahadur Gurung as treasurer, Anup Gurung as co-treasurer, Prem Bahadur Gurung, Bir Bahadur Gurung, Ram Gurung and Chimi Leduk urung as members.

The club is registered as a non-profit company. The club will be a joint venture of professional mountaineers, mountaineering guides, and adventurers in Gandaki province.

The club aims to promote mountain tourism, mountaineering, mountain sports, conservation of mountain environment, management of training for mountaineering human resource development, exploration of new mountain routes, promotion of safe mountain tourism, and emergency rescue management.

In Gandaki, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, and Annapurna are three mountains higher than 8,000 meters and the government has opened 121 mountains for climbing. According to stakeholders, there are still hundreds of mountains in the province that have not been opened for climbing and have not been identified.

The main objectives of the club are as follows: ·

• To assist in the work related to the rights and interests of the professional mountaineers and people engaged in mountaineering in the Gandaki region and to ensure their social security.·
• To play a role in linking mountaineering and adventure mountaineering with employment and livelihood. ·
• Promotional works will be carried out to increase the popularity of Gandaki province and Nepali mountain ranges in the world by protecting the natural beauty and environment of Gandaki and Nepali mountains, Himalayan region. ·
• To provide assistance and advice to the concerned bodies by protecting, promoting, and coordinating the activities related to mountaineering. ·
• With the approval of the concerned authority, to make the association active for the work of time-related education, high mountaineering art and skilled vocational training, rescue work training. ·
• Necessary coordination will be made with the government and non-government sectors for the basic free education, health and upbringing of the children of the economically deprived climbers who died during the ascent. ·
• For the development of mountain tourism, the association will be established as an umbrella organization and local mountain units will be formed under the association to open the opportunity for their participation in the association. ·
• To assist the state government in updating weather and climbing activities and information.
• In order to fulfill its objectives and enhance the image and dignity of the association, the association will focus on the areas and topics it deems necessary and carry out other necessary social and creative work. ·
• To popularize mountain and mountaineering sports among the people of Gandaki and Nepalis, to organize national, international and regional level sports an to participate in such projects.