Kathmandu, November 27

Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), under the guidance of Department of Tourism (DoT), is all set to launch profiles of 476 peaks of the country in 2020.

In 2016, DoT had handed over the responsibility to prepare the profiles with information on the peaks, including route, itinerary, height of peak, district, area, social condition of the area, and budget details for climbing the peak to the NMA.

“We have sent a letter to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation seeking its permission to officially launch the profiles of the peaks,” Kul Bahadur Gurung, general secretary of NMA, said. “Hopefully we will be allowed to officially launch the peak profiles in the beginning of 2020 so that climbers can ascend the peaks in spring season.”

The newly prepared profiles of peaks will comprise all the details of geography, social and economic along with latest pictures, he added.

As per him the concept of peak profiling aimed to set up a scientific database of Nepal’s peaks. It is also expected that the peak profiles will help attract climbers to attempt virgin peaks of the country, he added.

In the last fiscal, the department had refused to release the allocated budget of Rs five million to the peak profiling project citing unsatisfactory progress. Back then, the department had said it would issue the budget only after NMA completed the profiling work.

Gurung said that the work has now been completed and is under revision before its official launch. The department had allocated Rs three million to NMA for the project in fiscal year 2016-17 and Rs two million in fiscal 2017-18.

The government had started working on this project in 2014, and in 2016 DoT formed a sub-committee for market study to take the project forward.

According to DoT, of the 476 mountains above 5,800 metres that are suitable for climbing, the government has opened 414 mountains for climbing activities at the moment. However, only half of the opened mountains have been attempted by the climbers.