A technical sub-committee entrusted to study unexplored peaks in the Nepal Himalaya has recommended to the government that four unclimbed peaks be named after veteran foreign mountaineers.
Among the four mountains, two are located between the world’s first and sixth highest summits—Everest (8,848 m) and Cho Oyu (8,201 m)—in the Khumbu region.
The proposed names for these two are Tenzing Peak (7,916 m) and Hillary Peak (7,681 m) after the first Everest conquerors Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand respectively. Both the peaks have the same base camp. Hillary and Sherpa were the first to scale Everest on May 29, 1953 as part of a British expedition.
Similarly, the sub-committee has proposed that two unclimbed peaks that lie near Annapurna I be named after two French climbers—Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. The mountains proposed to be named after Herzog and Lachenal are 7,555 m and 7,140 m high respectively.
On June 3, 1950, Herzog and Lachenal became the first climbers to climb Annapurna I, the 10th highest mountain in the world. This is the first eight-thousander to be climbed. Herzog wrote a book about the expedition which has been translated into 62 languages and has sold more than 22 million copies.
The sub-committee led by Ang Tshiring Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, submitted its report with the recommendations this week to the main committee led by Purna Chandra Bhattarai, chief of the Industry Division of the Tourism Ministry. “We have proposed to name these peaks to honour the pioneer climbers,” said Sherpa. “It will be a big step in the effort to promote mountain tourism.”
Similarly, the sub-committee has also recommended naming a newly explored peak above 8,000 m that forms part of the Kanchenjunga massif. “Altogether, we have urged the government to open another 165 peaks to commercial climbing,” Sherpa added. As of now, 310 Himalayan peaks are open to climbers. However, only a few of them have been able to attract mountaineers.
In a bid to encourage adventurers to climb peaks in the Mid and Far Western regions, the government has even waived the climbing royalty which ranges from US$ 1,000 to more than US$ 7,500.
According to Bhattarai, who leads the main committee, the government will conduct a further study of the technical sub-committee’s report. “We plan to call a meeting of the committee to review the report soon,” Bhattarai added.
After reviewing the report and doing a deeper study of the climbing routes, location of the base camps and other aspects of the mountains, the main committee will make its recommendation to the government to open them to climbers. “The Tourism Ministry will then send the final report to the Cabinet for its approval.”
According to the Tourism Ministry, the government collected Rs 344.78 million in mountaineering royalty in 2012, up 40.7 percent from the previous year.