Nominee – Ski and Snowboard Foundation Nepal

OVERVIEW

The Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal envisions teaching Nepalese youngsters to ski, snowboard and skitour. With the support of a consortium of Austrian, German, Swedish and Swiss ski instructors that are keen to share their skills and knowledge with Nepalese tourism students a dual track ski school project was started. The foundation trains mountain guides how to conduct skitours securely with tourists, and at the same time encourages Nepalese students and youngsters to learn how to ski and snowboard. This capacity building project has led to a strong empowerment of rural mountain communities, created new jobs and expanded the tourism season.

Vision, goals and objectives

The Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal (NFSS) is a non-governmental non-profit organization, founded in January 2016 by Utsav Pathak and Julius Seidenader collaborating with other friends with the aim of developing snow sports in Nepal. The Foundation aims to promote the Nepali tourism sector by developing sustainable ski and snowboarding, while protecting the sensitive mountain regions in Nepal. After the devastating earthquake which hit Nepal in 2015, Nepali students and mountain guides initiated the Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal. In a next step, 50 sets of used ski tour sets were collected and imported to Nepal. Currently there are around 70 sets of skis, snowboards, split boards, skins, avalanche beacons and probes available.

The Foundation has the vision to teach Nepalese youngsters skiing, snowboarding and skitouring. With the support of a consortium of Austrian, German, Swedish and Swiss ski instructors that were keen to share their skills and knowledge with Nepalese tourism students we started a dual track ski school project. The foundation trains mountain guides how to conduct skitours securely with tourists, and at the same time encourages Nepalese students and youngsters to learn how to ski and snowboard. This capacity building project has led to a strong empowerment of rural mountain communities, created new jobs and expanded the tourism season. Furthermore, NFSS raises awareness of the drastic temperature changes in the Nepalese Himalayas by showing the world the changing mountain landscape and the ever quicker retreating glaciers. By engaging in this capacity building efforts the foundation has a strong focus on preserving the pristine and unique mountain environment in Nepal.

In addition, NFSS is teaching professional avalanche search and rescue courses to all its students to mitigate accidents, to build the necessary capacities for ski guides and raise awareness of the risks to the whole mountain community.
The objective was to use the existing tourism infrastructure of the lodges and trails in the Nepalese Himalaya, which are not being used in the winter season, without building new ski resorts. So far, the Foundation created a new tourism season, new jobs and successfully promoted a new and sustainable sport in Nepal.

Expected implementation and outcomes

In the last five years NFSS has conducted over 14 comprehensive and systematic ski courses with more than 400 students from all over Nepal. The beginner’s course, Level 1, covers the basics of skiing or snowboarding and was the most popular format. This training is usually offered at the gentle slopes of Kalinchok (3400m) in Dolakha, a 6-hour drive from Kathmandu. Moreover, one Level 1 ski course has been conducted in the far west of Nepal in the district of Humla. Possible funding would go into the sustaining of the ski gear used at the site at Kalinchok. Ski wax, new boots, climbing skins and other items that are hard to obtain in Asia and require a lot of maintenance.

Level 2 is an advanced component and requires a theoretical and practical course followed by an examination. It includes an introductory course into probing for avalanche victims, search and rescue and avalanche mitigation. Usually, this course is taught in the Annapurna Base Camp (4100m) which requires a 3-day trek. There are perfect conditions to not only learn to ski but to ascent on skis and safely learn how to judge the slope and snow conditions to assess avalanche conditions. Additional funding could contribute to the purchase of additional avalanche beacons and probes which are extremely scarce in Nepal.

Level 3 is the second-highest and most demanding course that requires not only ski skills, but also has an advanced avalanche and crevasse rescue component. This is required for skiing / splitboarding on glacial terrain and other more exposed mountain regions in Nepal. This course usually takes place on the slopes of Mera Peak (6474m) which offers the perfect slopes for advanced skiers and perfect conditions for crevasse and avalanche trainings. The course has also been implemented at Khang La Glacier (5600m) where the Nepal Mountaineering Association NMA usually trains on for one of their components of the Mountain Guide training.

Level 4 trainings have been conducted in India, Gulmarg. Two female students joined the level 4 training, Phenchoke Sherpa and Kelsang Shrestha are already providing level 1 courses to Nepalese Students. However, due to the Corona Virus Pandemic and the closure of the ski resort in Gulmarg in 2019 due to the armed conflict in Pakistan/India this training abroad has been terminated for now. Possible funding would contribute to travel costs for our advanced students to India.

Currently the Foundation is still working on a Level 5, instructor course. The attempt to obtain visa for a number of trained Level 3 students to get German/Austrian ski instructor certificates in Germany/ Austria wasn’t successful as visa applications have been rejected several times. Once the training of Nepalese instructors is finalized the project will be completed, and the last milestone achieved. Tentatively this could be in 5 years from now in 2026.

Please note that the content published in this article is courtesy of the Award nominee. The UIAA has made minor revisions to the original submission.