The 2011 phase of Asian trek leader training starts tomorrow. This time its based at a small training centre set up by a French benefactor a few years ago. Its at the hill station of Kakani, where there is a memorial to the plane crash that killed some of my friends from Plas y Brenin.
We will be training Nepali trek leaders, mostly Sherpas, with one representative each from 15 trekking companies. The idea is that there will be an assessment course early next year and the best of these candidates will go on to become trainers for the Napalese Mountaineering Association. Nepal has already produced its first International Mountain Guyides, and I am hoping that these guys will be able to join the programme as trainers as well. It would be great if eventually the trek leaders course could build up to UIMLA level.
We started a similar programme last autumn in Ladakh, working with the Indian Mountaineering Foundation - we're hoping to assess last year's candidates this October, but we're well past the deadline for numbers and dates, so its looking increasingly likely that we may have to postpone the Ladakh assessments until 2012.
Here in Kathmandu the monsoon seems to be fizzling out a bit early - maybe its moved to Wales this year - it certainly felt like it at times. This afternoon I'll be meeting a representative from the Nepalese Mountaineering Assciation to confirm plans for the next fortnight. Yesterday I hitched a lift to Durbar Square in old Kathmandu - its certainly a lot busier and more built up since my last visit in 1991 - such is progress I guess.
The diary of a Mountain Guide and climbing coach
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