<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be7229c7e80680e0877e0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="593"/>In a week when Mt Everest <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316160000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEDzpUR4IreP83wMTrZvrqa6m_knw">grew by nearly one metre</a>, we lost <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/doug-scott-a-giant-among-giants/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/doug-scott-a-giant-among-giants/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG_BLvaOp7Z_18YEJA3tvzQxEtZjg">Doug Scott</a> who with Dougal Haston was the first to scale the formidable southwest face of the world’s highest mountain. He was one of the earlier proponents of climbing Alpine style -- ascents without bottled oxygen, fixed ropes and porters, not expeditions that are executed like military offensives.Among the people Scott and his generation of ‘clean climbers’ inspired were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvK--x9wQk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DRuvK--x9wQk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEnG_1EEuXo03THJQsQu7uDy2zxjQ">Élisabeth Revol </a>and her climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz, Nirmal (Nimsdai) Purja and Voytek Kurtyka. Their adventures in the mountains are relived in three recent books that are tales of triumph and tragedy in the Himalaya.On 25 January 2018, Revol and Mackiewicz reached to the top of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19081#.X9BUE2UzaUk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19081%23.X9BUE2UzaUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEQ-rBDNaE7XPeII5CB-Ev3Kg9KqQ">Nanga Parbat</a> (8,126m) the world’s ninth highest peak in the Karakoram. This was the second winter ascent of the mountain, and Revol was the first woman to do so. It was already dark when they got to the summit, Mackiewicz became snow-blind, and had severe altitude sickness and frostbite.Revol’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZf14YLsrQjA3dcyi0JagMLik8Kg">To Live: Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountain </a>tells the story of her heroic rescue from the Nanga Parbat by two Polish climbers who were on K2 at the time, and the trauma of not just the harrowing descent, but also of having to abandon Mackiewicz in a crevasse at 7,280m on Nanga Parbat’s northwest face.Called the ‘killer mountain’, this enormous pyramid of ice and rock has been claiming climbers’ lives for the past 140 years. The first two Nepali casualties in a Himalayan mountaineering expedition were with British climber Albert Mummery in 1895 when they fell to their deaths on Nanga Parbat.Six more Nepalis were among nine killed in a German expedition in 1934, then 16 others were killed in an avalanche three years later. German climber Heinrich Harrer was captured in 1939 at Nanga Parbat by the British, later fled to Tibet, and wrote Seven Years in Tibet about his adventures and friendship with the young Dalai Lama.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be7259c7e80680e0877e1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="796" height="482"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>To Live is Élisabeth Revol’s attempt to come to terms with the loss of her climbing partner, relive the three nights she spent on the mountain waiting for the rescue, and two years later, rationalise for herself why she descended alone.Revol’s account is almost like stream of consciousness diary entry, re-experiencing the thrill of climbing, the shock of discovering that her partner had gone blind on the summit, and carrying him down a treacherous slope of black ice in the dark.This is an extreme saga of survival against all odds. The book reads like the other mountaineering classic, Annapurna, written by Revol’s compatriot Maurice Herzog about the first ascent of an eight-thousander 70 years ago.After staying at 6,780m for a helicopter rescue that does not happen, Revol decides that instead of waiting to die, she would risk going down the Mummery Spur despite severe frost bite, hunger, thirst, fatigue, the darkness and no climbing gear.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvK--x9wQkThis is also adventure literature at its most spellbinding:‘Everything seems improbably, unreal. I’m descending at night, without a head torch, on a route I don’t know, without any equipment; no ice axe or belay device, no French prusik, no ice screws or dynamic rope. Without having a drink for 55 hours at least. Almost sleepless for 80 hours apart from my daydreams and last night’s hallucinated torments.’This is not a spoiler, since the whole world knows the story: the rescuers arrive.‘Suddenly a beam of light from the slope below pierces the darkness. They climbed up? My God, they climbed up, they climbed up! The beam of the head torch shines on me and I hear: “Adam I have her”.’To Live is a very personal account in which Revol shares the terror of the descent, her friend’s obsession and spiritual bond with Nanga Parbat, and she ends her book with a letter to Tomasz Mackiewicz that is a farewell, and also a personal closure.‘Tomek had freely decided to be free, to make the purity of the mountains his noble passion ... Thank you, Tomek, for being what you were.’As a child in France, Revol had a poster of Mt Everest on her bedroom wall. So, a year after the tragedy on Nanga Parbat, while still wrestling her demons, she decides to climb Everest. She negotiates the traffic jam in May 2019 to descend to the South Col, and also re-climbs Lhotse. She describes the feeling:‘The sunrise over Nepal and the Valley of Silence is magnificent. What luck! I indulge myself in my kingdom, far away from the world, in my element, in solitude. The mountain welcomes me with kindness for the time being ...’**It is also on Nanga Parbat that Nimsdai Purja begins <a href="https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGUTkoqqlu6VM_TbLEXHCMoYTMlgA">Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zone</a> with an account of his near-death experience after slipping on ice at almost the same point where a year previously Élisabeth Revol had made her second night’s bivouac on the Kinshofer Route. It was his presence of mind, acute situational awareness and survival instinct that allowed him to arrest his fall.In tone and content, the Revol and Purja books could not be more different. While To Live is about survival, Beyond Possible chronicles an ex-Gurkha commando’s never say die ambition to attain the impossible – climb the world’s 14 highest mountains in seven months. He ended up doing it in 6 months and 6 days, when the previous record by Korean climber Kim Chang-ho was 7 years, 10 months and 6 days. Labeling this kind of extreme mountain-hopping ‘Alpine style’ is not adequate, it demands the fitness of a Special Forces commando that Purja was, and the kind of mental drive and focus that only someone like him could command.Purja lives the Gurkha credo of ‘better to die than to live a coward’. He is out to prove everyone wrong, all those who ridiculed his idea, refused to fund his climbs because they said it was impossible. Which is why Purja called his mission ‘Project Possible’. Quitting is not in Purja’s blood, and more than anything else, his book is a chronicle of how this intrepid soldier-climber overcame every obstacle on his path.These were not just technical challenges on the mountains, but seemingly insurmountable fundraising, bureaucratic, political, hurdles every step of the way. There is money to be raised, climbing permits to be obtained, jealous and cynical skeptics to deal with.It almost seems like the summit is just symbolic, Purja’s single-minded pursuit of his goal and never losing sight of his destination is an inspirational message for everyone in every arena of life.Just like Revol, Purja also has to deal with judgemental social media users moralising from sea level, trolls and people who take extreme pleasure in being just plain cruel and vicious. Revol is accused of leaving her companion to die, while Purja’s purity is questioned for using bottled oxygen. But up there in the high thin air, both are above it all. It is just them and the mountain.Purja’s book, with its macho tone, pages peppered with obscenities and gung-ho accounts of alcohol and partying, can put some readers off. But it is probably an accurate reflection of his persona. What could be seen as self-promotion is also self-discipline – Purja’s credo of leading by example, of trailblazing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be7279c7e80680e0877e2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="365">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obZhYgNuRsBesides Nanga Parbat, Purja very nearly comes to grief on Kangchenjunga, Annapurna, K2 and the Gasherbrums, showing us why this kind of climbing is so dangerous. Despite this, he abides by the strict military code of not leaving comrades on the battlefield. The end of the book has Purja’s ‘8 commandments’ on ethical climbing that could be applicable in every other sphere of life.On Annapurna, after summiting the first of his 14 peaks, he helps bring down a Malaysian climber despite being ‘knackered’. He rescues an Indian woman on Everest, and two more Indian climbers on Kangchenjunga. All of them were too far gone to make it, but the important thing is that Nimsdai did not leave them to die on the mountain.In fact, on the mountain Nimsdai Purja behaves more like a commando than a climber. His ‘ascents’ are ‘attacks’, it is either ‘death or glory’, he has to make Broadpeak ‘bomb-proof’, ‘nailing the peak’ is like clearing a minefield. After climbing Everest and rescuing a stranded climber, Nimsdai returned to his unit in Afghanistan, and writes:‘I was back scrapping with the military where I kicked in doors and took down bad dudes, counting off the days until it was time to climb another mountain.’He witnesses the crowds on Everest in May 2019, and his photograph of the ‘traffic jam’ at the South Summit goes viral, but he agrees with Karma Tenzing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6fk_VG3UeD_8DRFh65xsLfq_l6Q">who argued in this paper</a> against capping climbers on Everest, and instead vetting them for experience. With each climb, Nimsdai Purja see signs of climate change on the glaciers and slopes and uses his growing profile to become an activist to raise awareness about the melting mountains.Purja wonders if his international fame would have been greater if he had not been from Nepal. He writes:‘It’s highly likely that if I’d been a climber from America, Great Britain or France, then every outlet in the world have noticed the effort. I was also a realist. Those media companies with the biggest global outreach were mainly owned by western investors. The story of a climber from Chitwan and his attempts to scale the world’s tallest mountains in record-breaking time didn’t carry the same impact as a mountaineer working towards a similar goal from New York., Manchester or Paris. Even though I was technically a British citizen, my nationality had positioned me under the radar of almost everyone.’What’s next for Nimsdai Purja? What lies ‘beyond possible’? At the end of the book, he tries to answer this question. The mountains are there to be climbed, and he wants to pick ‘which ones to take and the style to do them’. Indeed, Nimsdai Purja is taking part in the K2 challenge and to repeat his climb, this time in winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be7289c7e80680e0877e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="360"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In her book, The Art of Freedom, Bernadette McDonald calls <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/voytek-kurtyka-unleashed/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/voytek-kurtyka-unleashed/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHEEl3D-Urgg4Tq6iYXZwMzWCy4Gg">Poland’s Voytek Kurtyka</a> the greatest alpinists of all time for the purity of his climbs. Kurtyka was a fierce critic of military-style expeditions to ‘conquer’ the big peaks, he did not consider jumaring up fixed ropes to camps laid out by Sherpas, as climbing.And he practiced what he preached. For this ascetic climber, getting to the summit was not as important as how one got there. Many of his climbing partners like Alex MacIntyre, Jerzy Kukuczka, were killed on the mountains they were climbing. And now Doug Scott, with whom he attempted Nanga Parbat, has also passed.For Voytek Kurtyka, as it is with Élisabeth Revol and Nimsdai Purja, the quest is spiritual, a style of climbing in which a mountaineer meets a mountain one-on-one.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be72a9c7e80680e0877e4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="416" height="624"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be72c9c7e80680e0877e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="387" height="585"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be72d9c7e80680e0877e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="405" height="581"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFU7v57Lf4mqRv4E1kjNY-plOzieA">To Live</a>Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountainby Élisabeth RevolTranslated from the original French Vivre by Natalie Berry<a href="https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/narratives/to-live/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/narratives/to-live/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG9GNKnZobFsagcdb12QMyGClMFDw">Vertebrate Publishing, </a>2020154 pagesKindle Edition: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie%3DUTF8%26condition%3Dused&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnWDfdNjLzdyLOcaHWjy48st0cVg">£</a>8.54    Hardcover <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie%3DUTF8%26condition%3Dused&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnWDfdNjLzdyLOcaHWjy48st0cVg">£</a>17.60<a href="https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGENSlTaz-IgNhYTYV1z71sKcizEg">Beyond Possible</a>One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zoneby Nimsdai PurjaHodder &amp; Stroughton / SAFU, 2020293 pagesHardcover: £17.18Softcover Nepali Edition: Rs 800<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=art+of+freedom&amp;i=stripbooks&amp;ref=nb_sb_noss_2" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k%3Dart%2Bof%2Bfreedom%26i%3Dstripbooks%26ref%3Dnb_sb_noss_2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFrtsMGyKAXnULsRwAkPRWCU73Gzw">Art of Freedom </a>The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka by Bernadette McDonaldRocky Mountain Books, 2017326 pagesHardcover $32

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Alpine style in the Himalaya

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee284b0ad905ca02ef29jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="593"/>In a week when Mt Everest <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316160000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEDzpUR4IreP83wMTrZvrqa6m_knw">grew by nearly one metre</a>, we lost <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/doug-scott-a-giant-among-giants/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/doug-scott-a-giant-among-giants/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG_BLvaOp7Z_18YEJA3tvzQxEtZjg">Doug Scott</a> who with Dougal Haston was the first to scale the formidable southwest face of the world’s highest mountain. He was one of the earlier proponents of climbing Alpine style -- ascents without bottled oxygen, fixed ropes and porters, not expeditions that are executed like military offensives.Among the people Scott and his generation of ‘clean climbers’ inspired were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvK--x9wQk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DRuvK--x9wQk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEnG_1EEuXo03THJQsQu7uDy2zxjQ">Élisabeth Revol </a>and her climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz, Nirmal (Nimsdai) Purja and Voytek Kurtyka. Their adventures in the mountains are relived in three recent books that are tales of triumph and tragedy in the Himalaya.On 25 January 2018, Revol and Mackiewicz reached to the top of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19081#.X9BUE2UzaUk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19081%23.X9BUE2UzaUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEQ-rBDNaE7XPeII5CB-Ev3Kg9KqQ">Nanga Parbat</a> (8,126m) the world’s ninth highest peak in the Karakoram. This was the second winter ascent of the mountain, and Revol was the first woman to do so. It was already dark when they got to the summit, Mackiewicz became snow-blind, and had severe altitude sickness and frostbite.Revol’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZf14YLsrQjA3dcyi0JagMLik8Kg">To Live: Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountain </a>tells the story of her heroic rescue from the Nanga Parbat by two Polish climbers who were on K2 at the time, and the trauma of not just the harrowing descent, but also of having to abandon Mackiewicz in a crevasse at 7,280m on Nanga Parbat’s northwest face.Called the ‘killer mountain’, this enormous pyramid of ice and rock has been claiming climbers’ lives for the past 140 years. The first two Nepali casualties in a Himalayan mountaineering expedition were with British climber Albert Mummery in 1895 when they fell to their deaths on Nanga Parbat.Six more Nepalis were among nine killed in a German expedition in 1934, then 16 others were killed in an avalanche three years later. German climber Heinrich Harrer was captured in 1939 at Nanga Parbat by the British, later fled to Tibet, and wrote Seven Years in Tibet about his adventures and friendship with the young Dalai Lama.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee2b4b0ad905ca02ef2ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="796" height="482"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>To Live is Élisabeth Revol’s attempt to come to terms with the loss of her climbing partner, relive the three nights she spent on the mountain waiting for the rescue, and two years later, rationalise for herself why she descended alone.Revol’s account is almost like stream of consciousness diary entry, re-experiencing the thrill of climbing, the shock of discovering that her partner had gone blind on the summit, and carrying him down a treacherous slope of black ice in the dark.This is an extreme saga of survival against all odds. The book reads like the other mountaineering classic, Annapurna, written by Revol’s compatriot Maurice Herzog about the first ascent of an eight-thousander 70 years ago.After staying at 6,780m for a helicopter rescue that does not happen, Revol decides that instead of waiting to die, she would risk going down the Mummery Spur despite severe frost bite, hunger, thirst, fatigue, the darkness and no climbing gear.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvK--x9wQkThis is also adventure literature at its most spellbinding:‘Everything seems improbably, unreal. I’m descending at night, without a head torch, on a route I don’t know, without any equipment; no ice axe or belay device, no French prusik, no ice screws or dynamic rope. Without having a drink for 55 hours at least. Almost sleepless for 80 hours apart from my daydreams and last night’s hallucinated torments.’This is not a spoiler, since the whole world knows the story: the rescuers arrive.‘Suddenly a beam of light from the slope below pierces the darkness. They climbed up? My God, they climbed up, they climbed up! The beam of the head torch shines on me and I hear: “Adam I have her”.’To Live is a very personal account in which Revol shares the terror of the descent, her friend’s obsession and spiritual bond with Nanga Parbat, and she ends her book with a letter to Tomasz Mackiewicz that is a farewell, and also a personal closure.‘Tomek had freely decided to be free, to make the purity of the mountains his noble passion ... Thank you, Tomek, for being what you were.’As a child in France, Revol had a poster of Mt Everest on her bedroom wall. So, a year after the tragedy on Nanga Parbat, while still wrestling her demons, she decides to climb Everest. She negotiates the traffic jam in May 2019 to descend to the South Col, and also re-climbs Lhotse. She describes the feeling:‘The sunrise over Nepal and the Valley of Silence is magnificent. What luck! I indulge myself in my kingdom, far away from the world, in my element, in solitude. The mountain welcomes me with kindness for the time being ...’**It is also on Nanga Parbat that Nimsdai Purja begins <a href="https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGUTkoqqlu6VM_TbLEXHCMoYTMlgA">Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zone</a> with an account of his near-death experience after slipping on ice at almost the same point where a year previously Élisabeth Revol had made her second night’s bivouac on the Kinshofer Route. It was his presence of mind, acute situational awareness and survival instinct that allowed him to arrest his fall.In tone and content, the Revol and Purja books could not be more different. While To Live is about survival, Beyond Possible chronicles an ex-Gurkha commando’s never say die ambition to attain the impossible – climb the world’s 14 highest mountains in seven months. He ended up doing it in 6 months and 6 days, when the previous record by Korean climber Kim Chang-ho was 7 years, 10 months and 6 days. Labeling this kind of extreme mountain-hopping ‘Alpine style’ is not adequate, it demands the fitness of a Special Forces commando that Purja was, and the kind of mental drive and focus that only someone like him could command.Purja lives the Gurkha credo of ‘better to die than to live a coward’. He is out to prove everyone wrong, all those who ridiculed his idea, refused to fund his climbs because they said it was impossible. Which is why Purja called his mission ‘Project Possible’. Quitting is not in Purja’s blood, and more than anything else, his book is a chronicle of how this intrepid soldier-climber overcame every obstacle on his path.These were not just technical challenges on the mountains, but seemingly insurmountable fundraising, bureaucratic, political, hurdles every step of the way. There is money to be raised, climbing permits to be obtained, jealous and cynical skeptics to deal with.It almost seems like the summit is just symbolic, Purja’s single-minded pursuit of his goal and never losing sight of his destination is an inspirational message for everyone in every arena of life.Just like Revol, Purja also has to deal with judgemental social media users moralising from sea level, trolls and people who take extreme pleasure in being just plain cruel and vicious. Revol is accused of leaving her companion to die, while Purja’s purity is questioned for using bottled oxygen. But up there in the high thin air, both are above it all. It is just them and the mountain.Purja’s book, with its macho tone, pages peppered with obscenities and gung-ho accounts of alcohol and partying, can put some readers off. But it is probably an accurate reflection of his persona. What could be seen as self-promotion is also self-discipline – Purja’s credo of leading by example, of trailblazing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee2d4b0ad905ca02ef2bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="365">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obZhYgNuRsBesides Nanga Parbat, Purja very nearly comes to grief on Kangchenjunga, Annapurna, K2 and the Gasherbrums, showing us why this kind of climbing is so dangerous. Despite this, he abides by the strict military code of not leaving comrades on the battlefield. The end of the book has Purja’s ‘8 commandments’ on ethical climbing that could be applicable in every other sphere of life.On Annapurna, after summiting the first of his 14 peaks, he helps bring down a Malaysian climber despite being ‘knackered’. He rescues an Indian woman on Everest, and two more Indian climbers on Kangchenjunga. All of them were too far gone to make it, but the important thing is that Nimsdai did not leave them to die on the mountain.In fact, on the mountain Nimsdai Purja behaves more like a commando than a climber. His ‘ascents’ are ‘attacks’, it is either ‘death or glory’, he has to make Broadpeak ‘bomb-proof’, ‘nailing the peak’ is like clearing a minefield. After climbing Everest and rescuing a stranded climber, Nimsdai returned to his unit in Afghanistan, and writes:‘I was back scrapping with the military where I kicked in doors and took down bad dudes, counting off the days until it was time to climb another mountain.’He witnesses the crowds on Everest in May 2019, and his photograph of the ‘traffic jam’ at the South Summit goes viral, but he agrees with Karma Tenzing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6fk_VG3UeD_8DRFh65xsLfq_l6Q">who argued in this paper</a> against capping climbers on Everest, and instead vetting them for experience. With each climb, Nimsdai Purja see signs of climate change on the glaciers and slopes and uses his growing profile to become an activist to raise awareness about the melting mountains.Purja wonders if his international fame would have been greater if he had not been from Nepal. He writes:‘It’s highly likely that if I’d been a climber from America, Great Britain or France, then every outlet in the world have noticed the effort. I was also a realist. Those media companies with the biggest global outreach were mainly owned by western investors. The story of a climber from Chitwan and his attempts to scale the world’s tallest mountains in record-breaking time didn’t carry the same impact as a mountaineer working towards a similar goal from New York., Manchester or Paris. Even though I was technically a British citizen, my nationality had positioned me under the radar of almost everyone.’What’s next for Nimsdai Purja? What lies ‘beyond possible’? At the end of the book, he tries to answer this question. The mountains are there to be climbed, and he wants to pick ‘which ones to take and the style to do them’. Indeed, Nimsdai Purja is taking part in the K2 challenge and to repeat his climb, this time in winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee2e4b0ad905ca02ef2cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="360"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In her book, The Art of Freedom, Bernadette McDonald calls <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/voytek-kurtyka-unleashed/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/voytek-kurtyka-unleashed/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607590316161000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHEEl3D-Urgg4Tq6iYXZwMzWCy4Gg">Poland’s Voytek Kurtyka</a> the greatest alpinists of all time for the purity of his climbs. Kurtyka was a fierce critic of military-style expeditions to ‘conquer’ the big peaks, he did not consider jumaring up fixed ropes to camps laid out by Sherpas, as climbing.And he practiced what he preached. For this ascetic climber, getting to the summit was not as important as how one got there. Many of his climbing partners like Alex MacIntyre, Jerzy Kukuczka, were killed on the mountains they were climbing. And now Doug Scott, with whom he attempted Nanga Parbat, has also passed.For Voytek Kurtyka, as it is with Élisabeth Revol and Nimsdai Purja, the quest is spiritual, a style of climbing in which a mountaineer meets a mountain one-on-one.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee304b0ad905ca02ef2djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="416" height="624"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee314b0ad905ca02ef2ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="387" height="585"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bee324b0ad905ca02ef2fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="405" height="581"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Fighting-life-killer-mountain/dp/1839810173&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFU7v57Lf4mqRv4E1kjNY-plOzieA">To Live</a>Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountainby Élisabeth RevolTranslated from the original French Vivre by Natalie Berry<a href="https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/narratives/to-live/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/narratives/to-live/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG9GNKnZobFsagcdb12QMyGClMFDw">Vertebrate Publishing, </a>2020154 pagesKindle Edition: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie%3DUTF8%26condition%3Dused&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnWDfdNjLzdyLOcaHWjy48st0cVg">£</a>8.54    Hardcover <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1839810173/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie%3DUTF8%26condition%3Dused&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnWDfdNjLzdyLOcaHWjy48st0cVg">£</a>17.60<a href="https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nimsdai.com/beyond-possible-book&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGENSlTaz-IgNhYTYV1z71sKcizEg">Beyond Possible</a>One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zoneby Nimsdai PurjaHodder &amp; Stroughton / SAFU, 2020293 pagesHardcover: £17.18Softcover Nepali Edition: Rs 800<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=art+of+freedom&amp;i=stripbooks&amp;ref=nb_sb_noss_2" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k%3Dart%2Bof%2Bfreedom%26i%3Dstripbooks%26ref%3Dnb_sb_noss_2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607600370665000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFrtsMGyKAXnULsRwAkPRWCU73Gzw">Art of Freedom </a>The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka by Bernadette McDonaldRocky Mountain Books, 2017326 pagesHardcover $32

The monsoon has got bad press because Nepal’s tourism operators actively told visitors to avoid <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/managing-the-monsoon?%2F">the rainy season</a>. It is time to change that. The reason can be found right here in the vast alpine meadows of Central Nepal where this time of year you can walk on velvet grass of pastures abloom with delicate pink, red and yellow flowers as the mist rolls up the valley. There is no sound except the hum of bumble bees. &nbsp;&nbsp; There are dozens of places across high Nepal called Chaurikharka, which means yak pasture. But this particular Chaurikharka in Rukum East located at an altitude of 4,000m stands out for its serene beauty, rustic charm and bucolic setting. There is just the occasional chime of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">yak bells</a> in the distance, and the sharp whistle of herders corralling sheep. &nbsp;&nbsp; The grass shoots are so fragile that one hesitates to step on them, the rounded ridges appear and quickly vanish in waves of mist. With the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/before-the-next-monsoon"> arrival of monsoon</a>, these meadows are a soothing shade of green dotted with millions of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-anatomy-of-a-flower?%2F=">multi-coloured flowers</a>. Until very recently, it took a week or so to hike up to places like Chaurikharka, but with the expansion of the road network even to these far-flung mountains in the lap of Dhaulagiri, they are much more accessible. It is just a three-hour uphill from the Mid-Hill Highway on the border between Baglung and Rukum East.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250802130828_a0b06b494d751b2144ffbbf10894ea64b29e8aed844bc8c66171783abfaf4e16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250802130828_a0b06b494d751b2144ffbbf10894ea64b29e8aed844bc8c66171783abfaf4e16" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Visit Nepal in the monsoon"> </figure>  Purists would say that such easy access devalues the sanctity of these remote high meadows, but it also means more people will be moved to treasure the experience, appreciate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/natures-fragile-gift-to-nepal">the value of nature </a>so they can take steps to protect it.&nbsp; To be sure, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/deadly-monsoon-in-nepal-turns-deadlier">monsoon season can be challenging for road travel</a>. The roads are rough even at the best of times, and in the monsoon they become muddy and treacherous, often blocked by<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/monsoon-deluge-in-nepal"> landslides</a>. But that could be precisely the kind of adventure that the more intrepid visitors crave. Improved road connectivity has already made Chaurikharka and places like Badimallika &nbsp;and other sacred lakes in the mountains of western Nepal popular with domestic tourists. What is driving this traffic is the urge to go to exotic new places and share videos and selfies on social media. Several of Nepal’s travel vloggers have visited Chaurikharka and popularised the place, enticing followers on TikTok or YouTube to retrace their footsteps. But even as they become more popular, these fragile and once-remote places should be protected from over-tourism.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250731110736_f97110b7cdc3e7f80d5877690948fc9f4c95a09c583deb23b07355491e6c5446.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250731110736_f97110b7cdc3e7f80d5877690948fc9f4c95a09c583deb23b07355491e6c5446" data-rendition-name="original" width="1083" height="699" loading="lazy" alt="Visit Nepal in the monsoon NT"> </figure>  <h2>INCREASING FOOTFALL</h2> Chaurikharka is located in Bhume Rural Municipality of East Rukum, near the scenic valley of Dhorpatan in Baglung district. Even in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/monsoon-culture">middle of the monsoon</a>, there is a steady stream of Nepali hikers trooping to these high pastures – especially during festival days like Saune Sankranti which this year was on 17 July and actually marks the auspicious beginning of the monsoon here. “This year the rains have not been as heavy and there have been some clear mornings when we could see everything from Dhaulagiri to Machapuchre,” says Khageswar Bhandari, who trekked up here from the road. “The flowers, the greenery and the snowy mountain views make this an incredibly unique place.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250802130824_1b9e26f2e9853fdfe69154bb42a7c9ea6da4bf4940efc1da99b304dcfbd7d3d9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250802130824_1b9e26f2e9853fdfe69154bb42a7c9ea6da4bf4940efc1da99b304dcfbd7d3d9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1152" loading="lazy" alt="Visit Nepal in the monsoon"> </figure>  Chaurikharka is worthwhile to get to in any season, but it has a different charm during the monsoon. Word has spread and because it is now easy to get to from Baglung or even Pokhara, people have been flocking here.&nbsp; “Holidays and Saturdays see the largest crowds, with up to 500 visitors every day,” says ward chair Mankaji Pun of Bhume.&nbsp; There was a time not too long ago when local herders brought sheep, goats, cows, buffaloes, horses, and mules to graze here during the monsoon. Although there are still livestock around, animals have been replaced by visitors taking selfies. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-monsoon-and-nature-s-arithmetic">The monsoon, and nature’s arithmetic</a>, Tom Robertson Ward Chair Pun says infrastructure development is his main priority. A foot trail to Chaurikharka was built last year by the Tourism Division Office in Kohalpur, but access via the Raniwas-Koipa road section still remains challenging.&nbsp; “If we get more budget, we can improve the road and facilities to make Chaurikharka the main tourist attraction of this region,” says Bhume Municipality Chair Hom Prakash Shrestha. “After that, we hope to promote Chaurikharka as a top tourist spot.”&nbsp; Economic activity is also picking up with the arrival of visitors, but there seems to be a need to manage the makeshift sheds made of corrugated sheets that spoil the beauty of the place. Tea shops and lodges are also available but facilities are basic. Kuldeep Neupane took a three-day trip from Ghorahi in Dang to visit Chaurikharka recently, and says: “This is an ideal trip to make a quick getaway and let nature recharge your mind and body. And it is much more fun with a tent, to watch the sunrise over the Himalaya or the mist blowing in.”

Visit Nepal in the monsoon

Nepal is graduating to become a developing country on 24 November 2026 after half-century in the Least Developed Country (LDC) category. By 2030, the country hopes to transition to middle-income status.&nbsp; Everone from Prime Minister K P Oli have boasted that this is a matter of national pride, and will have a multiplier impact on trade and economy.&nbsp; But will it make any difference to the average Nepali? Not unless improved governance <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal">spurs investment and creates jobs</a>.&nbsp; Countries need to meet at least two of the three criteria in two consecutive triennial reviews to be eligible for graduation from LDC. Nepal has consistently met the thresholds for the Human Assets Index (HAI) and the Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) in 2015, 2018, and 2021. But Nepal was recommended for graduation before meeting the per capita <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-great-income-divide">Gross National Income (GNI)</a> threshold of $1,306. “A major implication of LDC graduation is the loss of preferential market access available through Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and other arrangements,” explains economist Sameer Khatiwada. “But over two-thirds of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-doesnt-produce-its-2-biggest-export-items">Nepal’s exports</a> are to India, and the preferential market access to India is through a bilateral trade agreement. This has nothing to do with our LDC status.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250815060832_f5eabe7628a8cdf84f33b25d7cef3c4dc8913a26d8e5b253ea52a36e176b8a85.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250815060832_f5eabe7628a8cdf84f33b25d7cef3c4dc8913a26d8e5b253ea52a36e176b8a85" data-rendition-name="original" width="640" height="470" loading="lazy" alt="LDC graduation "> </figure>  Furthermore, a provision under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) allows Nepal to export to India duty-free if the items are at least 30% value-added. Nepali traders take advantage of this by re-exporting edible oils without meeting that requirement, falsely boosting Nepal’s exports.“ Following graduation from LDC, the value addition threshold might increase to 40%,” says Kalpana Khanal of the Policy Research Institute. “This is supposed to work to our advantage, because on paper value addition inherently means <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/staying-home-to-create-jobs">job creation at home</a>.” But Nepal’s exports to other major destinations will face <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-and-the-us-india-tariff-tiff">tariff increases</a> with the graduation. A South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SWATEE) study shows that while tariff increase in the US market is relatively low (see page 5) it is considerably higher in Europe. The International Trade Centre (ITC) in a 2022 study also estimated that graduation could result in a 4.3% decline in Nepal’s projected exports, but this is excluding the impact of changes in ‘rules of origin’ provisions in preference-granting countries such as the UK and Europe.&nbsp; Nepal’s top export to these preference-granting countries is <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1482">carpets</a>, and will not be impacted, but other items such as textiles and apparel will be heavily affected due to higher cost of production. The impact will felt mostly by small and medium enterprises which represent the largest share of exports to LDC-specific preference-granting countries. As for the service exports, Nepal never really made use of the World Trade Organization’s LDC services waiver anyway, hence the effect will be minimal, if any. There is also concern about Nepal’s graduation at a time when the global economy is topsy-turvy, amidst <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/turning-point-in-us-india-relations">tariff wars and conflicts</a>. This affects Nepalis abroad directly and may impact <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/more-remittance-more-than-remittance">remittances </a>which hit $11 billion in 2024. In comparison, Nepal only received $350 million in foreign loans and grants last year.&nbsp; Tourism arrivals have finally reached pre-pandemic levels, but bad publicity about pollution, poor infrastructure and bureaucratic hurdles hinder further growth. Manufacturing continues to struggle, while hydropower and the IT sector have taken off.&nbsp; “Look at data -- <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/tourism-needs-a-new-push">tourism arrivals</a> are up, spending is up, IT exports are up, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-nepal-needs-to-restore-ev-tax-subsidy">EV sales </a>are up, Europe still needs 85-90 million skilled workers. We are sitting on $16 billion in cash reserves, our balance of payment, foreign exchange reserve, tax to GDP ratio, credit flow are all positive, we have to build on these factors,” says Sujeev Shakya of the Nepal Economic Forum. He adds: “Our mindset creates negativity to promote rent-seeking behaviour, but this cynicism will go away after 2026 with LDC graduation. We must deal with data, look at trends, and projects which will bring in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/why-there-is-no-foreign-investment-in-nepal">international investments</a>.” Khanal agrees that investment is not dependent on<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/backside/Nepal-not-the-least-developed-country,306"> LDC status</a>. The factors that that affect investment are policy stability, a strong legal framework, market potential and ease of doing business. She adds, “That is where our focus needs to be, and we need to retain <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/diaspora-diaries/migrant-worker-returns-to-create-work-at-home?fbclid=IwAR09xJfsClCwn8uRVAmz28CU658vdKpuyDwB_b1sNlvKtAFFnSldnA0JS2g">Nepalis with jobs at home</a> for our sustained growth.” After 2026, financing support from donors and aid agencies could be affected and Nepal will no longer be able to access Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) to adapt to the impacts of climate change. But the Global Environment Fund and Green Climate Fund will still be available.“ LDC status does not determine bilateral development aid, that is usually driven by broader <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/looking-beyond-two-boulders">geopolitical considerations</a>,” says Sameer Khatiwada. “The World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which provide concessional loans to Nepal, it is determined mainly by per capita income, not LDC status.” &nbsp;However, Nepal may lose some concessional terms for loans. Nepal is currently a lower-middle-income country as per the World Bank in the bracket for GNI between $1,036 and $4,045. The country is already receiving more loans than grants and in July the World Bank increased its interest rate on loans by 100% from 0.75 to 1.5%. “All this means that the impact of LDC graduation for Nepal might not be as earth-shattering as some tend to think. Countries that have recently graduated, such as Botswana and the Maldives, have shows that graduation is just a step in a country’s development path,” says Khatiwada. Sujeev Shakya also sees the glass as half full, explaining that LDC graduation is just a stepping stone if Nepal has the right policies in place. He adds, “Nepal’s biggest advantage is our<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/investing-in-people"> working age population</a> and we have investments coming in. These aided by how adaptive we are as a society are the very foundations on which Nepal will grow.”

Not poor, but not rich

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli announced jubilantly on social media that Nepal had achieved a historic annual growth of 81.8% in exports. He was right. Nepal’s trade did take a great leap forward compared to last year. But the dramatic rise was mainly due to processed soya bean oil.&nbsp; However, Nepal does not produce the edible oil it exports. In fact, the soya and palm oil that make up 44% of total exports are imported from Southeast Asia and South America, and simply re-exported, mostly to India.&nbsp; Under the SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) Agreement, Nepal can export products to India duty-free if it has at least 30% value-added. Nepal’s traders have taken advantage of SAFTA even though the edible oils they export do not reach that value addition threshold. “The 30% value addition requirement is often only on paper,” says former commerce secretary Purushottam Ojha. “It is clear that simply packaging edible oils in Nepal does not fulfil the terms of the trade agreement.” Prime Minister Oli is aware of this, and even called Nepal’s export figures “fake” at an earlier event. The government is relying on other iffy figures to suggest that Nepal’s economy is strong and getting stronger. For example, the value of imports rose by 13.25% in 2024-25 compared to the previous fiscal year.&nbsp; Some of it was due to a jump in electric vehicle imports worth Rs 31.76 billion, but mostly it was because more wholesale soya oil was imported to be re-packaged and sold in India. The very fact that the government boasts about increased imports is an indication of how much it relies on taxing them for revenue. Touting such trade figures cannot be the basis to claim an economic rebound.&nbsp; “A jump in the value of imports can be interpreted as an increase in purchasing power, but it is not evidence of a stronger economy,” says economist Keshav Acharya. “Even though imports have increased, Nepal's domestic production and productive capacity have not improved.” Nepal Rastra Bank's semi-annual economic activity study report shows that industrial production was down in the first six months of the last fiscal year. This despite an increase in the number of new industries registered and investment commitments. Out of the Rs70.2 billion proposed foreign investment, Nepal received only Rs17.9 billion last year.&nbsp; Meanwhile, the rate of capital formation was limited to 24% last year, which is lower than the year before, suggesting that new investment, job creation and economic expansion all declined. If domestic production does not improve in relation to this year’s inflated trade figures, the outflow will put pressure on foreign exchange reserves like it did three years ago. At that time, Nepal borrowed from the IMF under its Extended Credit Facility Program to kickstart the economy.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025080710084_2cdaaa5795828c4a7de93a0604ba884ef0a8b8f24cccd939f6c24e279ab6058f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025080710084_2cdaaa5795828c4a7de93a0604ba884ef0a8b8f24cccd939f6c24e279ab6058f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1633" height="723" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal's bubble economy NT"> <figcaption>Source: NEPAL RASTRA BANK</figcaption> </figure>  The macroeconomy is on firm footing with foreign exchange reserves at a comfortable Rs2,520 billion in May, up 23% from last year. This was largely due to remittances, and partly due to a falling NPR exchange rate. Real estate transactions and the stock market index have also been climbing as a result of government policies to revive the sector.&nbsp; However, former executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank Nar Bahadur Thapa cautions: “This is not organic growth, it is the result of deliberate policy decisions to relax rules on real estate and stock markets transactions.” In reality, the sharp rise in land prices have increased the cost of production, and excessive monetisation of the real estate has become the main source of Nepal’s economic woes. The central bank has announced a slew of new policies, shifting the terms of loan repayment for industrialists and entrepreneurs, reducing interest rates, and injecting more working capital — all designed to inject adrenaline into the real estate and stock market sectors.&nbsp; When he was governor, Mahaprasad Adhikari made several financial reforms during the latter half of his tenure to stimulate the economy, including tightening credit flow.&nbsp; By the last fiscal year, additional financial reforms had resulted in a credit expansion rate of around 8%. As the pace of credit expansion slows, real estate prices have started to fall. This is actually beneficial to the economy, because it lays the foundation for improvements in land-related entrepreneurship, production, and the construction sector. Just because real estate and the stock market transactions increase, it does not indicate an economic turnaround — especially when manufacturing and productive sector continues to languish.&nbsp; “It is foolish to believe that real estate and the stock market have magically revived our economy. Agriculture employs more than half of the population, but it is in decline. Investment in the productive sector has not increased, and job creation has not increased.” Two years ago, Nepal’s industrialists, business leaders, and political leadership predicted a recession amidst a sluggish business, declining market demand, large-scale job loss, and a shrinking real estate and share market.&nbsp; Still, the economy grew by 3.36% in fiscal year 2023/24. In fact, Nepal’s economy has grown nominally over the last two decades even when all sectors of the economy are in decline.&nbsp; Says Keshav Acharya: “The growth in trade, real estate, and the stock market are bubbles. The real economy remains stagnant.”

Nepal’s bubble economy

The final investigation report on the crash of a Saurya Airlines jet on 24 July 2024 at Kathmandu airport has revealed flaws in the carrier’s technical operation procedures, poor monitoring by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and gaps in the airport’s emergency response. Eighteen people including a child were killed, and only the captain survived as the plane plunged seconds after takeoff, crashing within the airport perimeter. This was the latest in a series of aircraft accidents in previous years, and further tarnished Nepal’s already poor aviation safety record and contributed to the country being retained in the EU’s air safety list. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The circumstances in the Saurya crash were different from the Yeti Airlines crash in Pokhara in January 2022 that killed all 72 on board, and two Tara Air crashes in February 2016 and May 2022 on approach to Jomsom that together claimed 45 lives. However, all four tragedies were a result of negligence of carriers and crew, failure to follow procedures, regulatory slackness, and overconfidence. The Saurya crash, especially, was a glaring example of how an ailing airline broke its own rules to allow passengers, including non-employees, a joy ride to Pokhara on a maintenance ferry flight. CRASH REPORT The Final Investigation Report prepared by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission and released on the first anniversary of the crash last week carried a long list of rules that were ignored or broken, and of regulatory failure. The first mistake was to cram spares, tools and inflammable chemicals needed for the aircraft’s C-Check in Pokhara into the cargo hold flouting its own ground handling procedures.&nbsp; There was no check-in of passengers, some of whom were not even employees – even though regulations say only flight and maintenance crew should be on board a maintenance positioning flight. Many brought their own luggage into the plane and stored it unsecured in the cabin. There was no flight attendant to give a safety briefing to passengers. The load and trim charts given to the flight crew were rough estimates, and the total takeoff weight of the plane was 18,300kg plus or minus 200 kg. That would still have been all right, but there was a glaring mistake in the speedchart Saurya pilots were using to calculate the minimum takeoff speed (known as VR), and it had been wrong ever since the 21-year-old aircraft entered service with the airline in 2017. FAULTY DATA&nbsp; The Commission probed Flight Data Recorder inputs from previous takeoffs of the Canadian-built CRJ200-LR in 2023-2024 and found that the undetected error in the speedchart had caused the plane to pitch up at an abnormal rotation rate at least 18 times on previous takeoffs.&nbsp; Any rotation rate more than 3°/sec is regarded as unusual. But on at least two occasions, this aircraft with tail number 9N-AME had rotation rates of 5.8°/sec and 5.5°/sec, the second one was when the pilot who survived was flying in March 2024.&nbsp; On this particular day, the plane’s rotation rate was 6.5°/sec, causing it to go into a deep stall soon after takeoff, the Commission report said. Essentially, the plane was not flying fast enough down the runway to take off safely.&nbsp; It is not yet clear whether excess weight, unsecured luggage, wrong centre of gravity were also factors, but relying on a faulty speedchart for the given takeoff weight, the captain flying pulled back on the yoke before the plane had reached takeoff speed and at a pitch angle that was too steep. The investigation report says the plane then went into a deep stall and started banking right with the stick shaking. At this point, the flight officer on the right hand seat is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sir, Sir, Sir…” It then banked left before the pilot flying turned the plane sharply to the right again in an evasive action to avoid the parking aprons of the international and domestic terminals. Had he not done so, there would have been a disaster of a much greater magnitude at Kathmandu airport that day. The plane scraped the runway with its right wingtip, collided with a container having helicopter spare parts, and plunged into a gully east of the runway, exploding in a fireball. The investigation also noted that the impact forces seemed to be survivable for some occupants. The fire trucks took unnecessarily long to reach the site even though it was inside the airport perimeter. The absence of an ICAO-standard runway strip, inadequate rescue drills, lack of training, and a blocked emergency service gate leading to the crash site were cited as other factors. &nbsp;&nbsp; <h2>Timestamp of a Disaster</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250731110724_39cdd04693994ce6e55a5b302905c0fa4884fe85bed21ff0779bb1439f3a5725.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250731110724_39cdd04693994ce6e55a5b302905c0fa4884fe85bed21ff0779bb1439f3a5725" data-rendition-name="original" width="778" height="826" loading="lazy" alt="Flouting rules caused Saurya tragedy NT"> </figure>  11:10:34 - The Saurya Airlines CRJ200 on the takeoff roll from runway 02. It had a takeoff weight of about 18,300kg, but the pilot’s speedcard had a previously undetected mistake about the minimum takeoff speed. 11:10:55 -The plane with tail number 9N-AME goes into deep stall soon after takeoff because it does not have enough speed to lift its weight. The plane also has an abnormally steep nose-up attitude.&nbsp; 11:11:03 - Without enough speed to generate lift, the plane banks right, then left and right again in CCTV photos taken from the domestic apron (below). If it had not banked right, it could have hit the aprons and terminal buildings. Seen parked is Saurya’s other CRJ200 with tail number 9N-ANM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250731110732_608132f7225c649125cca2691dd6a6bf930984c5b359e888d7ad9e5eacce3afd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250731110732_608132f7225c649125cca2691dd6a6bf930984c5b359e888d7ad9e5eacce3afd" data-rendition-name="original" width="770" height="555" loading="lazy" alt="Flouting rules caused Saurya tragedy NT"> </figure>  11:11:08 - The plane scrapes the runway with its right wingtip, and falls into the gully. The captain is thrown off the left side of the cockpit and survives. 11:11:15: Plane explodes in a fireball inside the airport perimeter. Firefighters take time to reach the site because of lack of access road and a blocked gate. Read the full investigation report <a href="https://www.tourism.gov.np/files/9N-AME%20AIC%20Final%20Report.pdf">here</a>.

nima-purja

Alpine style in the Himalaya

Alpine style in the Himalaya

Visit Nepal in the monsoon

Not poor, but not rich

Nepal’s bubble economy

Flouting rules caused Saurya tragedy