Celebrating 40 years of history
Hotel Yak & Yeti on April 18 organized a felicitation program for the Austrian Everest Expedition Team 1978 to mark the 40th anniversary of the hotel as well as the expedition.
During the felicitation program hosted by Monika Petra Scheiblauer, the general manager of Hotel Yak & Yeti, the climbers shared their extraordinary experiences and expressed their heartfelt connection to Nepal.
“It has been 40 years but the experience is still fresh,” Reinhold Messner, a member of the expedition, told APEX. “I wish to be back 20 years later and spend my last few years here. It is always wonderful to be here in Nepal.”
The other mountaineers of the 1978 expedition attending the event were Wolfgang Nairz, Prof Dr Oswald Olz, Prof Peter Habeler, Prof Dr Raimund Magreiter, Robert Schauer, Hanns Schell and Helmuth Hagner. Nepal Mountaineering Association President Santa Bir Lama and the representative of Nepal Tourism Board Sudhan Subedi were also in attendance.
Evoke your sensations
The Evoke Café and Bistro at Jhamiskhel, Lalitpur is a venue that offers great coffee choices, an eclectic food menu and selective live music, in a calm and cozy environment.
With its own spacious parking space and both indoors and outdoors seating, Evoke hosts a variety of events from mini-markets to theater performances, barbecue parties to live music.
The premise also shares space with The Local Project—a shop, gallery and studio—so you can eat, drink, party, and shop as well.
THE MENU
Chef’s Special:
Evoke Lasagna, Waffles, Mozzarella Sticks, Fish and Chips
Opening hours
8 am-10 pm
Average Meal for two: Rs 2,500
Cards
Accepted
Trailing the Great Himalayas
‘After completing both the Annapurna Circuit and the Everest Base Camp treks, Moon Seung Young felt these commercial and meticulously organized treks rarely gave her the freedom to explore nature and learn new things about Nepal.
Dissatisfied, Moon began looking for alternatives, new trails to the remotest parts of Nepal that gave her the opportunity to explore uncharted territories, and that is how she stumbled upon the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT) in 2013. (Soon she would go on to become the first South Korean to complete the GHT high route.)
Giving experienced trekkers this unique opportunity was precisely the idea behind the GHT, which was launched in 2009 after five years of meticulous research, documentation and mapping. In the same year, Robin Boustead led the first team to complete the whole trail, in 162 days.
The GHT is a long-distance footpath that runs from Kanchanjunga in the east to Darchula in the west, covering 1,700km and offering an extraordinary diversity of landscapes, cultures and experiences. The whole trek takes around 150 days to complete. On the way, trekkers walk through eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000m, and cross passes at an altitude up to 6,000m. Covering regions like Annapurna, Sagarmatha, Dolpa, Manaslu and Langtang, the goal is to get a new generation of trekkers excited and get them exploring Nepal.
Routes
There are two routes that the GHT trekkers can take—the high route and the low route. The former (3,000-6,000m) passes through some of the most remote villages and high altitude valleys of Nepal. The latter has an average altitude of 2,000m, the highest point being the Jang La pass (4,519m). Taking around 95 days to complete, trekking along it means walking through dense forests and small communities and learning about their customs and religions.
Difficulties
Completing the GHT is considered far more difficult than climbing a mountain, as it calls for a very high level of fitness and commitment. Only a few as such have completed the high route.
“You must have three things—time, money and courage—to complete the GHT,” says Nima Dawa Sherpa, a Nepali trekker who completed the high route in a record 82 day. “Not everyone has all three at once. Trekkers don’t get to see human habitats for two or three days in a row and they have to carry basic items like food and tents themselves.”
“When we crossed the trail, passes were very narrow in some places, so we could only set up one tent and as many as 11 people had to sleep in it,” says Moon Seung Young. “And there were no good signposts to guide us.”
Setback
“The concept was based on a business model specifically drafted to benefit Nepal’s tourism,” says Pranil Upadhayaya, a certified trail manager. “But as the trail passes mostly through wilderness, it couldn’t generate much business. Plus, the rigor of the trek dissuaded many.”
As such, the GHT was subsequently divided into a 10-part network of trails, which includes Kanchanjunga, Makalu-Barun, Everest-Rolwaling, Helambu-Langtang, Ganesh Himal-Manaslu, Annapurna and Mustang, Dolpa, Jumla, Humla and the far-west. As it takes only around two to three weeks to complete one sector, more people got interested.
Even so, Upadhayaya adds, Nepal’s trails are not up to international standards. Four basic aspects of a trail are safety, environment, boarding facilities and information in the form of signposts. Most Nepali trails lack one or more of these.
He is not pessimistic though. “For the first time, we are getting trail standard guidelines in Nepal, and under the Tourism Ministry, a trail standard community has been formed,” Upadhayaya says. “The standard of Nepal’s trails is being gradually improved with the collaboration of various national and international bodies”
‘ Facebook disputes’ breaking families
The local level judicial committees in the eastern district of Ilam have had to adjudicate an increasing number of cases revolving around marital disputes arising from the reported abuse of social media, or the alleged misuse of money sent by a spouse working abroad. These committees, headed by municipal deputy mayors or ward deputy chairpersons, were formed to resolve disputes locally in line with a constitutional provision. The committees have the authority to arbitrate civil as well as criminal cases whose sentence can last up to a year.
Ilam’s Mai municipality, which borders the district of Jhapa, gets over 50 cases in a month. Bishnu Maya Rijal, coordinator of the judicial committee and deputy mayor, says many of those cases have to do with marital problems, and that while the committee is able to resolve some cases, others are more complicated. One such reported case involved a wife who asked for an expensive mobile phone from her husband working abroad and used the device to establish relations with another man.
Rijal argues that families whose members work abroad are being broken apart because of social media abuse. Facebook seems to be a major culprit. Women (but also men in some cases) are apparently using it to begin extra-marital affairs. They splurge the hard-earned money sent by their spouse working abroad, the filed cases accuse.
Similar cases are being filed in other areas too. Pabimaya Rai, deputy mayor and head of the Judicial Committee at Deumai municipality, says that there has been a drastic increase in the number of ‘Facebook disputes’. “There are many cases of a woman indulging in profligacy or licentiousness while her husband is abroad,” says Rai.
No law yet
The standard procedure for adjudicating cases hasn’t yet been formed at Ilam’s local level. But Shumsher Rai, chairperson of Rong rural municipality, says that despite the lack of laws, local disputes are resolved through mediation.
In the absence of the required laws and guidelines, some local level judicial committees have adopted the dispute resolution mechanism of various NGOs. The government has recently sent a preliminary draft of the law to the local level. All local level judicial committees say they are studying the draft.
By TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM
