By Lucky Chhetri | Program Director
Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN) and the Magic Mountain Foundation in Poland held a All-women Ice Climbing Training in Annapurna Base Camp and Tent Peak from Dec 24, 2007 – Jan 17, 2008.
The goal was to: *Provide technical skills to women *Involve more Nepali women in adventure tourism *Produce skilled, quality-service orientated female mountain guides for employment opportunities *Instill courage and leadership among women *Increase independence and self-confidence of women *Encourage women to express their hidden talents and technical skills. *Trekking guides (any educational background) *Women with the capabilities and qualities to work as mountain climbing guides
Skills learnt at Annapurna Base Camp: *Basic rope and harness maneuvers, auto-security techniques using belay equipment, fixing the stand with stripes, belaying on the rope, securing partner *Basic ice-climbing – walking in crampons on rock-grass and ice, using ice axes.
Comments from the participants:
*Januka ~ I am very happy to have summit Tent Peak. In future I wish to climb Mt Everest and be a mountain guide.
*Saraswati ~ I was unable to summit the peak. Nevertheless I am very happy and thankful to the organizer. I wish and pray in future that the organizer may run another training program like this.
Overview:
To climb a mountain, whether on ice or rock, one should be physically as well as mentally strong. Therefore we gave this opportunity to those women who were working at 3 Sisters’ Adventure Trekking (P) LTD. We chose 12 participants from them.
This training course is part of our advanced training program. We always thought and dreamt to run this kind of big training program (project) in Pokhara and we finally succeeded. This training program was the first ever Women's Ice Climbing Training in Nepal and also the first winter's ice climbing training. The program received lots of media attention with coverage by many local and national newspapers. Even FM Radio covered the program and also gave an interview with Lucky.
We had 12 participants, but due to bad winter weather conditions only 2 of them had the opportunity to summit Tent Peak. Nevertheless all the participants built up their confidence for snow and ice climbing.
FM Radio also asked for an interview with one of the participants. Januka, one of the climbers who summited Tent Peak, gave an interview. She said it was very hard, but not impossible. She was very excited and some day wishes to be on the top of the world (Mt Everest). She has gained confidence and said if she gets more opportunities like EWN gave, one day she will become a mountain guide.
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