Solo climbing can be banned in Nepal’s national parks from next month, which the country’s tourism board says will reduce the chance for the tens of 1000’s of adventurers who travel to the Himalayan country every 12 months.
The decision, announced last week by the Nepal Tourism Board, comes after incidents where tourists got lost and sometimes died while climbing alone, board director Mani R. Lamichhane said on Tuesday.
“There have been many cases where tourists have disappeared,” said Lamichhane. He said fatal incidents involving lone hikers had given some tourists the misperception that Nepal was a dangerous destination.
The decision was previously announced by Kathmandu post officeEnglish-language newspaper in Nepal.
The latest rules apply to international travelers of all experience levels when climbing in Nepal’s national parks resembling the favored Annapurna Circuit, a 150-kilometer route circling the Annapurna mountain range. Trekkers can still go on solo hikes outside national parks, resembling around the town of Kathmandu.
The latest rules extend a 2017 mandate that banned solo climbing in Nepal’s mountains, including Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. Eight of the world’s 10 highest mountains are positioned at the least partly in Nepal, which lies between India and China. Every 12 months there are fatal accidents within the mountains of Nepal, including those attributable to avalanches, snowstorms and altitude sickness. Mr Lamichhane didn’t reply to a request for comment on whether the 2017 ban led to a decline within the death toll.
According to government data, in 2019, before the pandemic, greater than 400,000 tourists traveled to Nepali national parks for mountaineering and trekking; about 46,000 of them went on the trek alone, Lamichhane said. The climbers got here mainly from the US, UK, China, Germany, India and Japan.
Lamichhane said there have been around 22,000 lone wanderers in Nepal last 12 months. He added that he hoped the brand new rules would help create jobs for guides and other staff within the tourism industry.
Some tourists criticized the brand new rules.
Natalia Lange, a 30-year-old actress from Warsaw, said she saved up for a month-long trip to Nepal for a 12 months, including a solo trek to Everest Base Camp on a route that will take her through turquoise glacial lakes within the Gokyo Valley. Now she’s unsure she has enough money to proceed her journey, she said.
“I’m a complicated trekker,” said Mrs. Lange. “I do not need a nanny.”
She said she was frustrated that the tourism board announced the changes weeks before they took effect.
“Many people have already got trips planned and budgets are tight they usually simply cannot afford the additional costs,” she said. Ms Lange also questioned the selective nature of the foundations, which don’t apply to Nepalese residents, on condition that they’re exposed to the identical risks as foreign visitors.
Another tourist, Amit Kumar, a software engineer from Sydney, Australia, said he wasn’t sure what the brand new rules meant for an upcoming 11-day expedition to Everest Base Camp, which he planned to embark on alone.
Mr. Kumar, an experienced hiker from India, said he’s a bit introverted and prefers to go climbing alone or with other hikers in the event that they occur to satisfy along the way in which.
“I used to be excited because I’m going solo and I like being solo, taking things at my very own pace,” said Kumar, 38. “When you undergo an organization, you’ve gotten to be with other people. If you want them or don’t love them, you’ve gotten to adapt to their schedules, you’ve gotten to belong to this group.
He said he wasn’t sure if he should hire a guide since the latest rules would come into effect while he was on his way.
According to government statistics, around 400 tourists were reported missing every year in Nepal before the pandemic, even though it was not clear how a lot of them were later found or whether or not they were climbing or climbing on the time of their disappearance. Between July 2020 and June 2021, when the pandemic limited international travel, 54 tourists were reported missing.
Travel firms, nevertheless, welcomed the brand new rule. Udaya Subedi, owner of Happy Treks Nepal, a tour operator in the town of Pokhara, said this rule would help keep hikers secure.
Mr. Subedi, who goes by the pseudonym Mr. Happy, he said a South Korean woman who died in January while trekking alone to Mount Annapurna, possibly attributable to altitude sickness, she may need survived if she had been with one other hiker who could have taken her to safety. “There have been many such incidents,” he said.
Increasing risks from global warming and more unpredictable weather, including flash floods, are another excuse why hikers can be safer with licensed guides who’re aware of the risks, Lamichhane said. Nepal said it last 12 months moved the location of the Mount Everest base campwhich is now on a thinning glacier.
While the brand new rules will make trekking dearer, Rupak Parajuli, co-founder of Mount Mania Treks and Expedition in Kathmandu, said the value of a porter is just $20 a day and a guide only $25 a day on some routes. and base routes. “This will help highlight greater safety for travelers,” he said.
