Annapurna base camp to open from fourth week of September 

Gandaki. The Annapurna base camp closed by Covid-19 will be open from the fourth week of September.

The base camp trekking trail will be opened as soon as the religious, cultural and tourist destinations of the country start opening.

Secretary of the Chomrong Tourism Management Committee, Dilip Gurung, said that the trekking is being started by setting health standards in the base camp area, which is one of the top 10 trekking trails in the world. “We are planning to open the area from the fourth week of September for the purpose of trekking,” he said.

The uniqueness of this trail is that you can walk by looking at the mountains up close. Entrepreneurs have been active in expanding tourism infrastructure to provide adequate facilities to the visitors, said Lalit Gurung, coordinator of Annapurna Century Tourism Festival. 26 hotels in the area are serving tourists and 10 more hotels are likely to be added in future.

The hotels have come into operation in the area after 2049 BS on the initiative of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) established in 2043 BS. According to the criteria set by ACAP, the hotel were run at Sinuwa, Bambo, Himalayan, Dobhan, Deurali, Machhapuchhre and Annapurna base camps. According to the criteria, tourists can stay in 156 rooms including six in each hotel.

Annapurna Century Tourism Festival has been started since 2074 BS with the objective of helping in its proper management and promotion in view of the growing tourist attraction in the region which was visited by 80,000 internal and external tourists in the year before the commencement of Corona.

The festival has been postponed for the last two years. On June 3, 1950, the team of Maurice Herzog of France set a world record by climbing the Annapurna First Mountain.

On May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary climbed the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, following the success of the 8,091-meter summit.

In 1966, a decade and a half after the Annapurna ascent, the world-famous hiker Eric Sipton trekked to the Annapurna base camp at an altitude of 4,130 meters, making the area an excellent tourist destination.

The journey from Ghandruk to Annapurna base camp usually takes four days for outsiders and three days for domestic tourists.  In the past, foreign tourists were forced to eat local delicacies.

In recent years, hotels here have also started serving foreign dishes. ACAP has been imparting training to the locals from time to time. The hotel has started keeping cooks that can make foreign dishes.

With the expansion of the hotel’s capacity, there is growing interest in further managing the ancient shrines at Buddhakruti, Dobhan and Himal in the hills to the east of Deurali in the footpath area, as well as the 108 stream seen from the temple premises and the pool at Tatopani in Jhinudanda.

Som Thapa, former chairman of the Pokhara Tourism Council, said that the tourism industry should be restored to its original condition. “Tourist destinations are opening up in the world market with standards. We should not stay closed anymore,” Thapa said.