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Nepal to hold Cho Oyu Golden Jubilee
KATHMANDU, DEC 18 - It was in May 2003, when heavyweights of world mountaineering gathered here for the last time and gave Nepal an undisputed exposure in the world. And it is the same exposure that tourism pundits believe helped in a significant rise in tourist inflow in the past few months.
Now, if everything goes as planned, Nepal will have a similar gathering of international mountaineers, who will be in Nepal next October for the golden jubilee celebration of the first ascent of Mount Cho Oyu, a 8,201metre high mountain at about 30 km west to the Everest.
"The celebration will be a grand one," Shanker Koirala, Officiating Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said. He further informed that the event would help re-establish Nepal’s image as an adventurous tourism destination.
The sixth highest mountain in the world, Mt Cho Oyu, was first climbed, without oxygen, from its northwest face on 19 October 1954 by an Austrian team which was comprised of Austrians Herbert Tichy, Sepp Jochler, the French nationals and Pasang Dava Lama from Nepal.
"Finally, the peak is reached, the infinite hardships have been the stories. The last nine hours fighting with the mountain, the weeks of privations and hardships, even the risk of one’s life- is this reward itself really? Yes, certainly! Not because of fame but self-satisfaction: To have found the mountain as friend and have been so near to the sky," Sepp Jochler had said after the summit.
Though a small name in front of world’s roof- Everest, Mt Cho Oyu has guided number of big names of Everest to its summit. "Junko Tabie, Reinhold Messner and Shambhu Tamang," are a few from the list says Krishna Aryal, an executive member of the NMA.
The implementing agency of the golden jubilee celebration of Mt Cho Oyu is Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA). The government has also formed a committee under the chairmanship of Tourism Secretary to mark the event.
Mount Cho Oyu is considered as one of the most difficult peaks to summit from Nepali side. Despite the fact almost 1,700 national and international mountaineers have already reached Cho Oyu atop during the past 49 years.
"All Cho Oyu summiteers will be invited during the ceremony and they will be honoured," said Purna Bhakta Tandukar, the Chief of the Mountaineering Section of the Tourism Industry Division of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
In addition to Cho Oyu, the government has also announced for organising the golden jubilee of five more 8,000metre plus Nepali peaks. According to the schedule, the golden jubilee of 8,463metre high Mt Makalu and 8,586metre high Kanchenjunga will be celebrated in 2005.
Similarly, the celebration of 8,516-metre high Lhotse and 8,163metre high Manaslu will be organised in 2006, and the golden jubilee of 8,167metres high Dhaulagiri will be celebrated in the year 2010.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Ministry has also requested the Communications Minister to bring out the commemoration postal stamps of these six peaks, which were scaled 50 years ago.Posted on: 2003-12-19 03:40
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