NEPAL PROHIBITS INDEPENDENT MOUNTAINEEERS FROM ACCESS TO NATURE

Five years after the Nepalese government banned solo adventurers from climbing Mount Everest, the restrictions have spread across the country.

Nepal is home to eight of the highest mountains in the world, but it is also known for its rural regions for hiking and mountaineering. From now on, all those who want to explore the remote parts of Nepal must hire a government-licensed guide or join one of the organized tours.

Although the mountaineering industry is one of the country’s biggest earners, the cost of rescuing missionaries and lost planning is much higher.

When you hike alone, there is no one to help you in case of emergency or danger. It’s fine if you travel in cities, but in remote areas, the infrastructure is not very adequate. If the most terrible case happens, that a tourist disappears or dies, even the government cannot locate him, because he went to some more distant and remote places or routes.

A challenge to the government’s complacency is the guides themselves, who assume they are leading tour groups even though they are not licensed by the government as required. If there is a disappearance of tourists, such guides represent a problem both for their group and for the state of Nepal. These companies, which do not register with the government and do not pay taxes, are stealing jobs from the people of Nepal. There was also an initiative of tourist associations to prohibit unlicensed organizations and tours from guiding tourists, because they risk the safety of all of them. OIvo has been a request that has been in the works for many years and now it has finally come into force.

However, there is always a conflict of opinion. There are mixed opinions about the new rule in the mountaineering world and the mountaineering community. They believe that this rule would be valid if more and more people try to go through the difficult planning through Nepal. Tourists who dare for the first time to try mountain climbing and push their limits often choose easier trails and routes. Times have changed, in the past you could only see experienced mountain climbers, while today we can see a large number of people trying to reach high mountain peaks on their own. Unfortunately, this represents a danger both for them and for the rest of the mountains. The government does not manage to control more and more tourists and then this general law had to come into force.