News

This year the event welcomes the first participant from New Zealand who are among the group of participating 22 climbers.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is organising a high altitude mountain medicine course in Leh in Jammu and Kashmir from September 7 to 14.  The goal is to expand the number of doctors in the country with such expertise.

Young climbers from around the world are planning to light a torch on top of Mount Olympus on August 24 to keep Olympic values alive as the flame in Beijing is extinguished.

Members of a UIAA-affiliated club can now enter Peru’s Huascarán National Park without guides or other service providers. Interested parties must register 30 days before entering the park, but this requirement is not being enforced, reports the UIAA Access and Conservation Commission.

The UIAA Access and Conservation Commission has called on the tourism authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to re-instate infrastructure to allow for the resumption of mountaineering.

“We owe it to our Indian colleagues in the UIAA to attempt a realistic and sober assessment of the risk involved,” said Commission President, Robert Pettigrew.

The Pir Panjal range of the Kashmir Himalaya has been closed to mountain tourism for 15 years due to the armed conflict in the region. Both journalists and officials have now expressed cautious optimism that some important mountaineering areas can be re-opened for trekking and climbing. Members of the Access and Conservation Commission have visited the Pir Panjal to discuss the issues.

N.N. Vohra, a member of the UIAA Management Committee and former president of the Indian Mountaineering Federation, has been appointed governor of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Chinese officials have announced a new "ecological security" plan for Tibet, which has the fastest rate of global warming in the world.

The Union of Asian Alpine Associations, (UAAA), has launched its own website. The site, www.uaaa-asia.org, was presented in connection with the UAAA council meeting on May 29 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

A new meteorological station now in place on Mount Everest is providing hourly updates online from its position 8,000 metres above sea level. The station will supply valuable information to climbers and scientists researching climate change.

The Russian Mountaineering Federation says the first ever extreme sports festival it has organised, the Red Fox Elbrus Race, was a success.