Mountaineering
in Nepal is appropriate. The first trekker in
Nepal is appropriate. The first trekkers in Nepal
were, of course, mountaineers who where either
on their way to climb peaks or were exploring
routes up unclimbed peaks. There was furious mountaineering
activity in Nepal from 1950 to the 1960s the emphasis
had shifted to previously impossible feats such
as the south face of Annapurna and the south west
face of Everest, both of which were climbed by
expeditions let by Chris bonington. The expeditions
in the 1960s and 40s were often well equipped,
and some times lavish, thanks to sponsorship from
governments, foundations, magazines, newspapers,
film makers, TV producers and even private companies.
Expeditions have
become big business and climbers now approach
the job with the appropriate degree of seriousness
and dedication. It is not uncommon for expeditions
to refuse trekkers admission into their base camps.
The team members do not have the time or energy
to entertain tourists, and there have also been
incidents of trekkers taking souvenirs from among
the expensive and essential items that often lie
around such camps.
There are three
seasons for mountaineering in Nepal. The permission
season from April to early June was once the only
season during which expeditions climbed major
peaks.
In the 1950s all expeditions where in the lull
before the storm period that occurs between the
end of the winter winds and the beginning of the
monsoon snow. Cold and high winds drove back the
Swiss expedition to Mt Everest in 1952 when they
attempted to climb the mountain in the autumn.
It was not until 1973 that an expedition success
fully climbed Everest in autumn.
Now the autumn or post monsoon season of September
and Scoter is a period of many successful
expeditions.
In 1979 the ministry
of tourism established a season for winter mountaineering.
It is bitterly cold at high elevations from November
to February, but recent advances in equipment
technology have allowed several teams to accomplish
what was thought before to be impossible a winter
ascent of a Himalayan peak.
Climbing during
the monsoon, from June to august, is not practical
from the Nepal side, though the north face of
Everest has been climbed during august. Two organizations
control climbing in Nepal
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