Tourism trends worldwide are changing to a more adventurous
form and to add to the already long list of adventurous activities in Nepal,
canyoning was introduced for the first time at a national level on Saturday (2
Feb 08) at the "Canyoning Demonstration Workshop" in the Hadi Khola
Canyon (Jumbo Canyon) in the Bhotekoshi Valley.
Most people, including the Secretary of Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation, Lila Mani Paudel, have confused canyoning with
canoeing due to the similarity in pronunciation. "The first time the Nepal
Canyoning Association (NCA) came to me with their proposal, I thought they were
talking about canoeing and I promptly asked them to coordinate this program
with the Nepal Tourism Board. It was only after NCA and NTB kept persisting
that I attend this workshop and briefed me about the sport that I realized it
was something very different from what I had thought," he said.
Canyoning, or canyoneering like the Americans call it, is a
sport that evolved from the exploration of canyons. "Canyoning activities
consist of walking or trekking up the head of a canyon and rappelling down with
the help of ropes and climbing equipment like harnesses, jumars and
carabiners," said NCA President, Tilak Lama.
"This sport could become as attractive as the existing
adventure activities like mountaineering, trekking and rafting since there are
plenty of canyons and gorges in Nepalthat could be used for the sport. We have already descended 25 canyons and we
are observing 15 other gorges of different levels and grades," he added.
According to canyoning experts present at the workshop,
canyoning is not a new activity. However, it only gained popularity in the late
seventies and early eighties. "The first time the term canyoneering was
used in American history was in 1867," said the President of the American
Canyoneering Association, Rich Carlson, who donated $500 to the NCA.
The sport in Nepalhas been supported by Ecole Francaise de Descente de Canyon (EFC), a French
canyoning school which sent a few of its instructors to Nepalto train and develop the sport in Nepal.
According to Yaan Ozous, a canyoning guide instructor, the
most important part of training is the rescue operations training. "Nepaldoes have good potential for this sport, however, we should also focus on
training a canyoning rescue squad to ensure safety," he said.
He stressed that Nepalhas the right geography for canyoning since natural conditions required for
good canyoning are: rivers, torrents and streams; deep valleys of reasonable
access; stable meteorological situation and altitude range which should be less
than 3000m for tourism and up to 5500m for professional expeditions.
The French Ambassador to Nepalstated that the sport was a French specialty and a lot of Europeans do like
adventurous activities so Nepalcould benefit a lot from the addition of this activity. "You have
wonderful canyons, wildlife reserves and beautiful mountains and rivers and if
adventure tourism is promoted well it will reinforce Nepal's
image in the international market," he said.
Rajesh Lama and Kabindra Lama, who are Nepal's
first EFC certified canyoning guides, stated that they attempted canyoning for
the first time in the MarshayndiValleyin 2004 with a French adventure team before going to Francefor formal training two years later. "We were always interested in
adventure sports like bungy and when we started our training for canyoning not
many people here knew about this sport," they said.
Secretary Paudel, after his attempt at the sport, said it
was an experience of a lifetime. "It was just thrilling. I really don't
have words to express id," he said. He further stated that this product
would be added to a promotional CD the Ministry is working on. "The CD will
contain all our tourism products and will be used for world-wide
marketing."
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