Newsletter August 2019

Nepal is not just about trekking and mountains, Nepal is host to some of the most diverse ecological regions found in the world. At its lowest altitude Nepal is only 70 metres above sea-level, yet within 178 kilometres as the crow flies you can reach the highest point on Earth. This image is of Rara Lake in the Far West of Nepal, three days drive, with over 14+ hours being off road, from Kathmandu.

As I posted the last Newsletter the Spring Season was just getting underway and little did anyone know what it had in store, only as the days and weeks rolled out did the events that are now written in Nepal’s history begin reveal themselves.

On the mountains, although very much at that stage a low profile project was slowly gaining momentum. On the 23rd April a party including a former British Gurkha soldier, Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja became the first team to successfully reach the top of a Nepalese 8000m peak, Annapurna 1, in 2019. His project, Project Possible was to summit all 14 of the 8000ers in seven months. 

As always Everest got more than its fair share of media exposure during the 2019 spring season but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Nepal issued a record number of Everest permits with the route to the summit being eventually fixed on the 14th May by the Sherpa team after a delay due to the arrival of Cyclone Fani. Once the route was fixed 150 expedition members reached the top close on the heels of the rope fixing Sherpa team. The Jet Stream was unpredictable and returned causing more delays but by the next weather window almost 800 people were heading up. The rush started at the beginning of May and literally hundreds summited early each morning during the next narrow weather window of only a few days. The ‘Mad Dash’, which wasn’t so much of a ‘dash’ but more of a congested syagger was captured by Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja in his now infamous summit ridge image. By August 2019 Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja had only got three more summits to reach to achieve his goal, a target unimaginable literally only 7 months ago. However this final stage is not going to be without its problems, Manaslu and Cho Oyu should not cause any issues however Sishapangma has been closed by the Chinese this season so maybe his November deadline might just not be possible.

Related to climate change a project known as ‘The EverDrill Project’, a joint venture between the Himalayan Research Centre and the universities of Leeds, Aberystwyth, Sheffield and Kathmandu, research work has been carried out at heights of up to 5,200 metres on the Khumbu glacier. The research team used a specially adapted car wash unit that produced a pressurised jet of hot water to drill boreholes as far as 190 metres into the glacial ice. Strings of temperature sensors were installed into the boreholes and left to collect data for several months. Researchers found that there was evidence to suggest that the ice was warming at a rate of around 0.5°C per decade indicating that floods and droughts were likely to become more common along with glacial lake growth. This is of obvious concern not only to the health of our planet but in more personal and local terms to the state of SE Asia for whom the Himalaya are the main source of drinking water.

Over the decades the way and approach to climbing big mountains and in particular Everest has changed. In an attempt to reduce the amount of time acclimatising certain continental expedition operators are now using altitude tents in their home countries before reaching Nepal, this cuts acclimatisation in Nepal down to a minimum. Companies using this technique have recorded good successes this season.

EverestER, the temporary health post situated at EBC is a project established by the Himalayan Rescue Association in 2003, the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest. During the spring expedition season the HRA reported a big increase in the number of inexperienced patients that they were seeing, they registered the total number of patients seen as being 582, 58% of them being Nepalese, this was the fourth busiest season since the HRA began operations.

Lukla flights were diverted on the 1st April from the normal Kathmandu to Lukla route to fly from Mantali to Lukla as there was major maintenance work being undertaken at the International Airport. This revised route required an additional 4 hour journey by road to the rural airstrip before flying onto Lukla or an expensive helicopter journey directly to Lukla from Kathmandu. This caused not only confusion but the new route lacked appropriate infrastructure to cope with the high numbers of tourists. At the time of writing there is a plan to keep this as the normal access route into the Khumbu region to ease flight congestion in Kathmandu.

As would have been expected being appointed to Kathmandu Environmental Education Project as CEO has enabled me to get a really good insight into many aspects of Nepal that have so far slipped under my radar. I’ve had the opportunity to visit many of the higher elevated lakes, several times, and for me these have provided days and in some cases weeks of pure pleasure and enjoyment. 

Rara Lake

However there has always been one lake that has managed to evade my planning but never the less remained high on my ‘must visit’ list and that was Rara Lake. Described by GORP founder Bill Greer as "a shimmering blue jewel set in a ring of snowy peaks" I was finally able to take on the challenge of driving across Nepal to the far western region before turning north to Mugu in June 2019. This trip was to support the delivery of a Sustainable Tourism Awareness program. The Lake, also called Mahendra Daha, is located in the Karnali Zone, Jumla and Mugu District, the poorest and most remote district in the Nepal.

Rara is the biggest lake in Nepal with a length of 5.2 km, a breadth of 2 km and depth of 167m, the total surface area is 10.4 square kilometres and it is situated at an altitude of 2980m, by road, 842kms from Kathmandu with at least one-third of the journey being on a rough dirt road, then of course you have the return journey!

The lake has not always been as idyllic and healthy as it appears now. Forty-seven years ago there were small local businesses, agricultural farms and homesteads dotted around the lake shore but they were all removed when the area was designated as a National Park. This was in the days of the Panchayat era when King Mahendra issued the royal decree himself and there was no question of disobeying. The King was mesmerized by Rara, in 1964 he penned his famous poem Rara Ki Apsara while sitting under a juniper tree on the southern shore. However, the King died before his dream of creating a pristine nature reserve could be realised, but his son, Birendra, fulfilled his father’s vision.

Rara 

Oh! Rara! Pray tell!

Who you are?

A nymph from heaven?

Or you have fallen on earth 

Owing to Indra’s wrath,

And have been tucked away a long time 

Neglected in this wilderness.

Tell me! I beg of thee,

How you ended up in our beloved country,

In the heart of Asia?

Or have you mistaken this place,

For heaven itself?

A portion of the poem penned by M B B Shah

Rara’s displaced families were told that the government had already built concrete houses for them, but that turned out to be just one of the many lies that they were fed and they were eventually relocated to, what were at the time the malaria-infested jungles of Bardiya. It is suggested that if Mahendra hadn't taken on and implemented this policy then today buffalos would be wallowing in the lake, there would be no fish left, the forest would be cleared, and the lake would be filled with rubbish, an environmental disaster-zone. The only way to protect Rara from its own beauty for the future, say conservationists, will be to encourage limited high-value tourism and ensure that tourism provides local employment through services, farm products and handicrafts, a sustainable tourism model.

In 2007 Rara was declared a Ramsar Site of over 15 square kilometres of surrounding wetlands, a site designated to be of international importance. The water in the lake flows east to the west where the outlet eventually drains into the Mugu Karnali River via the Nijar River. The water quality is characterized by a high level of basic water-based solution, meaning that it is has a high ph rating, conductivity and total hardness. 

All this amounts to the fact that Rara Lake water is classified as having low organic compounds resulting in the water being very clear and clean and specified as being of a high quality drinking water.

Rara Lake, is surrounded by the Rara National Park and is uniquely important with several rare and vulnerable floral and faunal species. In 1976 the park was established to preserve the beauty of the lake and to protect it from sedimentation and adverse human activities. The Park flora consists of 1074 species, of which 16 are endemic to Nepal, the fauna includes 51 species of mammals and 214 species of birds.

The lake supports three unique fish species, two species of the Nepalese Snow-Trout and the Rara Snow-Trout and one endemic frog, the Rara Lake Fog. During the winter many water birds visit the lake to reside or rest during migration, including Gadwall, Mallard Northern Shoveler, Common Teal, Tufted Duck, Common Golden Eye, Common Merganser, Common Coot and the Solitary Snipe. 

The post of Tourism Minister had been vacant for almost five months since the demise of the then tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari in a helicopter crash on February 27th Since then the Prime Minister had taken responsibility for the tourism ministry.

Soon after the oath ceremony, Minister Bhattarai, pictured on the left in the image above, assumed his duties and committed to following up on the pending workloads of the ministry. 

Bhattarai vowed to implement the suggestions from, and with the support of, experienced Nepal tourism stakeholders to:-

1. Complete the construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa before the deadline of December 2019. The airport will serve as a means of increasing tourism towards the west of Nepal.

2. Address the issues concerning the Nepal Airlines Corporation, which has come under increasing attack for not meeting anticipated route development to increase Nepal’s tourism potential.

3. Inject vigour into the preparations for Visit Nepal 2020 campaign

4. Revise the policies, preservation and promotion of cultural and historical heritage sites of the country.

Tourism is the biggest foreign currency generator, apart from Remittance, contributing to Nepal’s GDP.

People and expeditions to watch during the Autumn Season 2019

The legendary Spaniard Kilian Jornet is already in Nepal and will be attempting to speed climb Everest, Jornet, who holds multiple speed records on various mountains across the world, will be using Gorak Shep as his base camp. There are reports that the he will try to climb Everest via a new route if possible.

Joe Vernachio who joined the Mountain Hardware Company a few years ago will be testing a new series of high-altitude equipment on Everest this up-coming season. 

Polish adventurer Andrzej Bargiel will attempt to ski down from the summit of Everest along with two others. Bargiel, who skied down K2 in 2018, will try to descend to Everest base camp without using supplemental oxygen. 

The Project Possible team, Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja, only have three more mountains to climb to finish all of the world’s 8000 mt peaks in less than seven months. According to Magar, they might be trying a new route on Cho Oyu which is no longer climbed as much from the Nepal side. Magar will then go to Manaslu after which he will travel to Tibet for Shishapangma. However, there is a catch, the Chinese are not issuing any permits to climb Shishapangma this year.

Smashing age barriers on Dhaulagiri

Carlos Soria Fontan is already in Nepal preparing for his attempt to climb Dhaulagiri. At the age of 80, he is also attempting to complete all of the worlds’ 8000 mt peaks. Fontan only has Dhaulagiri and Shishapangma left on his list. He is the only person to have summited ten 8000mt peaks after turning 60 years of age.

Lhotse getting Popular

A nine-member Polish team will attempt Lhotse via the standard route through the Khumbu Icefall this autumn. They are already trekking to their Khumbu Base Camp.

Manaslu the place to be for mountaineers, or maybe not!

So far the Department of Tourism has issued approximately 194 permits to 18 teams for Manaslu. This number is likely to increase as the days go by and it looks like the mountain will again be crowded.

It seems that this year autumn mountain expeditions are coming back into vogue

My Rant!

Some of you might remember my rant way-back in 2014 about the rubbish left by domestic Yarshagompa collectors in Dolpa. Well now my latest rant is also about rubbish and in this case accountability!

The mid 1930s saw the previous and, up to then, largest earthquake to hit Nepal. At that time there was little in terms of logistical development, there were virtually no roads outside of the Kathmandu Valley, there were no domestic flights and no idea of earthquake resistant construction methods and more significantly no NGOs or modern communication systems. As a result all the buildings that unfortunately collapsed were simply reconstructed using the same methods and materials and equally as importantly the same cultural architectural style.

In 2015 when the 7.8m earthquake hit Nepal causing approximately $10 billion of damage the news of the event spread round the world in a matter of seconds. As a result hundreds of NGOs and their supporters were motivated to travel to Nepal to provide much needed help and thousands of dollars were pledged in support aid. For everyone the first concern was to provide water, food and shelter to those communities affected, many of which were in the remoter regions of Nepal. Millions of plastic water bottles were given out, along with polypropylene sacks containing rice and plastic based tarpaulins. Concerns were growing with regard to the fast approaching monsoon season.

In the aftermath of the devastation people started to rebuild their lives. However the plastic tarpaulins were still used to cover the buildings, when the ‘tarps’ began to fail they were recycled to covering animal shelters, then dung piles until the weather eventually reduced the sheets to tatters and the wind spread them around the community where they got tangled up and totally discarded but not destroyed. 

Four and a half years on from the earthquake and many of these plastic sheets are still very visible around those villages that received NGO aid. With the advancement of road building and the accessibility to modern material and techniques for developing earthquake resistant buildings these communities started to ‘import’ cement and steel rods in large quantities, all packaged in polypropylene sacks, which were then simply discarded at the end of their serviceable life. All contribute to environmental pollution of the middle hill districts of Nepal.

The images above, one taken in 2005 shows Machhakhola as it was, the image below, taken from virtually the same location on the bridge, shows the impact of plastic pollution, road development and NGO aid.

One expectation of trekkers visiting Nepal is to experience the unique cultural architecture. Unfortunately earthquake resistant designs don’t take into account cultural architecture. With a lack of monitoring, guidance and supervision communities take matters into their own hands, new construction is taking place and modern raw-material packaging is being irresponsibly discarded and cultural design, well that is another matter!

Is it not the responsibility of the NGOs to ensure the materials that are handed out in good faith do not end up as a detrimental side product to, in many cases, the only sustainable income generating activity these hill people have – Tourism? Should the NGOs not pay a return visit to their aid assisted communities to ensure their intervention has had a minimum impact on the environment?

Many of the nation sports associations of Great Britain were formed towards the end of the 19th Century, the Football Association – 1863, the Cricket Association – 1903, the Lawn Tennis Association – 1888, the Rowing Association – 1882 and the Alpine Club – 1857. However, in Nepal national associations were formed only in the early 1970s, The Nepal Mountaineering Association – 1973, the Himalayan Rescue Association – 1973 and Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal – 1979. TAAN was established by a handful of trekking agency operators who felt it was time to devise sound business principles as well as regulate the sector which was growing by leaps and bounds with every passing year. TAAN operates several departments including: 

Construction & Developmental
Trainings & Human Resources

Development

Promotional Activities

Environmental Activities

Philanthropic Activities

Emergency Response

In 2016 Sarita stood for election as a General Executive Board Member and got elected onto the Board at the 2016 AGM. Over the last few weeks TAAN has again held their election with a new Board being voted in. This time Sarita stood for the position of General Secretary and again I’m proud to say she won. As such Sarita is the first female to hold this position in TAAN since it was formed in 1979.

Congratulations to Sarita who is not only able to represent the Nepal tourism industry in such an auspicious position but also to up hold the commitment that Off the Wall trekking has in supporting the mountain tourism industry of Nepal.

Brexit!

You might well be wondering how Brexit effects life in Nepal. As you know the pound has been slipping against the US dollar. This has now caused the exchange rate to have dipped. In Thamel at a recent high the pound was worth 166 Nrs, this then slid to 144 Nrs where it remained static for several months, now it has slipped again to around 139 Nrs, although a few weeks ago it went as low as 134 Nrs.

Weather Predictions

With the tourist season about to start its time to consider the influence that the weather could have on your trekking plans.

The monsoon arrived as predicted but then everything came to a halt. Although the western regions of India have seen a great deal of flood damage little rain fell in Kathmandu, that is until a few days ago when things started to return to monsoon like conditions. The long range forecast indicates that there will still be cloud cover and precipitation at least up to the end of September.

If you are coming this way before the end of the month it’s best to check up on the weather apps for the latest information .. and be prepared for a damp start to your stay in Nepal.

However it is worth mentioning that every valley has its own weather pattern and sometimes once out of Kathmandu you will be pleasantly surprised!

Below is an image from the Mask Dance performed at the auspicious once in 12 year festival at Shey Gompa in Dolpa in 2012. The next festival is due in 2024, if you would like to go then please let us know as we are organising a trek to Shey for the Festival (early September) although the dates are not fixed yet.

August 2019