34th NMA Day Celebrated- 1 November

Mr. Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation hoisted the flag of NMA in the premises on the occasion of 34th NMA Day. Mr. Ghimire was the Chief Guest of the program. Mr. Deebas Bickram Shah, General Secretary welcomed all the guest present in the program and highlighted the background, objective and activities of NMA.

In the program, the Chief Guest awarded the Kumar Khadga Bikram Shah Contribution Award 2006 and Dawa Norbu Mountaineering Tourism Journalism Award 2006 to retired Col Mr. Madan Kumar K.C and Mr. Kedar Man Singh Shrestha respectively.

Mr. K.C. was involved in the rescue activities of the mountaineers for many years and had also set the record for flying a helicopter in the highest altitude in 1986 during the rescue of American Expedition on Mt. Everest.

Mr. Singh, a highly reputed Senior Tourism based writer was actively involved in the promotion of Mountain Tourism through the print media for many years and on the occasion of Golden Jubilee Celebration of Mt. Everest, Cho-oyo, Mt. Makalu and Mt. Kanchenjunga. Both the award receivers expressed their gratitude towards NMA and committed their active involvement in their respective sectors to further strengthen our role towards Nepal.

The Chief Guest also awarded letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs. 10,000.00 (Ten thousand) to 16 rescuers who were involved in the rescue of Shree Airlines, which crashed on 23 September 2006 at Ghunsa, Taplezung.

In his speech, the Chief Guest highlighted the activities of NMA for their contribution towards the Mountain, Mountaineering and the Mountain environment. He also expressed gratitude for the cooperation extended by NMA in the rescue operation of Shree Airlines Helicopter.

In the closing remarks, NMA President Mr. Ang Tshering Sherpa, thanked the Chief Guests and other guest for their presence in the celebration of 34th Anniversary of NMA and making it a grand success.

Nepal-Japan Friendship Golden Jubilee Expedition, Nangpai Gosum, (7321mtr) - November 2006

NMA organized a felicitation program on 1 November in honor of the participants of Nepal-Japan Friendship Golden Jubilee Expedition, Nangpai Gosum (7321mtr) - 2006 which was organized on the occasion of the 50th year of diplomatic relation between Nepal and Japan and the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Mt. Manaslu. The expedition members summitted on 26 October at 11:00 am

The Chief Guest Hon'ble Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Pradeep Kumar Gyawali inaugurated the program and handed over certificate to the participants of the expedition.

Mr. Da Gombu Sherpa, Nepalese Expedition Team Leader expressed his happiness to be a part of this historic expedition and hoped to strengthen the relation between Nepal and other countries by organizing such type of expeditions. Mr. Kazuyoshi KONDO- Japanese Expedition Team Leader also expressed his happiness to be included in this historical expedition and highly appreciated the skills and cooperation of the Nepalese members during expedition. Japanese Ambassador H.E. Tsutomu Hiraoka, in his remarks, said that this type of expedition will certainly play a great role in further enhancing the relationship between Nepal and Japan.

The Chief Guest, Hon'ble Minister highly appreciated the role of NMA as the implementing agency for Nepal in organizing this type of successful historic event, which will definitely help people to understand the diplomatic relation between Nepal and Japan in people to people level. He assured the cooperation from the ministry to NMA in promoting every mountain tourism promotional activities.

NMA President Mr. Ang Tshering Sherpa, in his vote of thanks, said that the expedition is also a step forward to enhance and strengthen the friendship and a tool for promoting tourism between the two nations for the new millennium. He also thanked the Government of Japan and the Japan Workers' Alpine Federation for taking initiatives to organize such expedition. Furthermore, he also showed appreciation to Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation for their support and trust they have shown in conducting this historic expedition. Simultaneously, he requested the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) to initiate necessary steps to prevent the sad incident which took place during the expedition. He assured the ministry that as a technical wing of the ministry, NMA is always ready to shoulder the responsibility of carrying out precautionary measures in the mountaineering field and to prevent further such incident taking place.

Taiwanese Corner at International Mountain Museum (IMM)- 8 November

Yung-ho Alpine Association of Taiwan informed that the association will establish a Taiwanese Corner at the International Mountain Museum, Pokhara. The corner will exhibit the mountaineering activities of Taiwan. The section will be inaugurated on 15 December 2006.

Central Secretariat Meeting - 14 November

The Central Secretariat Meeting on 14 November approved of the proposal of Mr. Colin Philip Smith regarding the display of Butterflies & Moths from the Mountains of the Himalaya at IMM.

The meeting also decided to provide a sum of twenty five thousand rupees to the Restaurant & Bar Association of Nepal to organize 8th Pokhara Street Festival-" Destination Paradise" from 28 December 2006- 1 January 2007.

Central Executive Board Meeting- 14 November 2006

The Central Executive Board Meeting decided to donate Rs. 50,000.00 for Kathmandu Int'l Mountain Film Festival which is going to be held from 7-10 Dec 2006 in Kathmandu.

The meeting also decided to register the newly amended statute of NMA at Central District Office.

Himalayan Host Countries Meet 2006- 14 November 2006

Himalayan Host Countries Meet 2006 is going to be held in Kathmandu on 13 December 2006. Nepal, China, Pakistan and India are the member countries.

Altitude Medicine Training- 15 November 2006

Introductory Extreme Altitude Medical Training was organized from 15-19 November 2006 at Khunde, Khumbu. Jointly organized by NMA and Wilderness Medical Associates, USA. NMA advisor Mr. Apa Sherpa played an active role for the training.

Visit of Japanese Mayor to IMM- 15 November

Mayor of Komagane City, Japan Mr. Nakahara Masazumi, Chairman Komagane City Council Mr. Kita Zawa and Director General of JICA Komagane Mr. Takashi Kato visited IMM on 15 November 2006. During their visit, they requested Pokhara Municipality- the Sister City of Komagane City to send the proposal for the future development program of IMM.

Letter of Appreciation distributed -21 November 2006

Members of WWF distributed Letter of Appreciation at NMA premises to the 16 rescuers involved in the rescue operation of the helicopter crashed on 23 September 2006.

Congratulation-25 November 2006

In the AGM of International Federation of Mountain Guide Association that took place on 25 November 2006 in Greece has accepted our Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) headed by Mr. Sunar Gurung (Aspirant Guide) as a member UIAGM.

NMA congratulated all the members of NNMGA for their international affiliation and wishes them a very bright future.

Mrs. Hashimoto's visit to IMM-25 November 2006

Mrs. Kuniko Hashimoto- wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and well wisher of NMA visited the International Mountain Museum on 25 November 2006. The IInd Vice President and the Convener-International Mountain Museum Committee Mr. Bhumi Lal Lama welcomed her as she arrived with her son Mr. Roy and other Japanese Guests. She was highly impressed with the scale of construction of the museum and assured her cooperation for the further development of the museum.

Press Meet- 28 November 2006

A press meet was organized on 28 November 2006 at Nepal Tourism Board to inform about the upcoming Himalaya Tourism Conference 2006. This conference which was originally planned to be held on 5 June 2006 on the World Environment Day 2006 by the joint effort of then HMG, MoCTCA, NTB, WWF Nepal, ICIMOD, KMTNC, TMI, HET Nepal and NMA was postponed due to the political scenario. Now, with a great effort in this new Nepal it has been finally taken its final shape and the conference will be held on World Mountain Day 11-12 Dec 2006.

This conference will hold 7 Business Sessions in various topics related to Tourism, Mountaineering, Mountain Environment and Biodiversity and will be presided by distinguished individuals in various field. The purpose of the conference is to gather all the subject based related institutions currently operating in Nepal so that they can evaluate and promote structural based policies in tourism environment and the Himalayan communities. There are 9 institutions as organizers and 39 institutions as supporters which are all related to tourism and environment directly. Mr. Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Secretary, Ministry of Culture was the Chief Guest for the press conference. He mentioned the objective behind organizing such type of important conferences are to revive and promote post conflict mountain tourism in the near future and to reduce impact of tourism on the himalayan environment for years to come and to promote equitable sharing of tourism benefit to the local community.

Introduction of Mountaineering Gears

This is regular column of e-News to introduce mountain gears to the readers.