Activities

Adventure Trips in Himalayas (Activities)

History of Trekking in Nepal

Activities history starts in Nepal!  The word trek is derived from the Boer language (spoken by the Dutch settlers in South Africa), meaning a long, hard journey. The root of the word is Dutch ‘trekken’ which means to pull or drag. In 1949 Nepal opened its frontiers to the outside world and within eight years, ten of the fourteen 8000m peaks have been climbed. Likewise, Annapurna I (8,091m) was the first to be climbed in 1950, this was following in 1953 by Mt. Everest (8,848m) and Nanga Parbat (8,125m). Then after, the increasing numbers of expedition were coming from different countries of the world. And then in 1964 all these Himalayan giants had been climb. Shisa-Pangma (8,046m) was scale by the Chinese in 1964 was also climb on their own. Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary reached the top of the world highest mountain Mt. Everest in May 29/1953.

The history of trekking in Nepal started after mountaineering expeditions of many magnificent peaks. Nepal began its career as a trekker’s paradise in 1,949. When a British adventure, Bill Tilman, did manage to get permission from the King Tribhuwan to create several treks into the Kali Gandaki valley, Helambu, and Everest regions. Another early visitor was Maurice Herzog, who led a French expedition to Annapurna I in 1950s. Trekking activities in Nepal really took off with the first expeditions to the base of Mt. Everest an American lead expedition in 1950s and a British one in 1951. Colonel Jimmy Roberts was the first person to realize that trekking would request to tourists.

The Trips in Himalayas

Moreover, as a former Gurkha Officer and Military representative at the British Embassy in Kathmandu, he had spent many years of his life walking on the hills of Nepal. He had accompanied Bill Tilman on his first trek and in 1964. When he founded Mountain Travel, the first trekking company of Nepal and the inspiration for the adventure travel industry. His idea, ground-breaking for the time, was to provide Sherpas, to Sardar (guide) and cook together with Tents. This made the Himalaya and Nepal available to a wide population and was an immediate success.

Jimmy Roberts’ “Mountain Travel & Trekking Agency” was the first trekking agency registered in Nepal in 1964, so it stayed the only one company for the next four years. His first clients were come to do the Everest Trek in the early spring of 1965. They were three American ladies who, according to Jimmy Roberts, “were a sporting trio of enthusiasts”. He was later on joined by Dawa Norbu Sherpa and Mike Cheney to handle the work at “Mountain Travel”. His early foreign partners were Leo Le Bon, Allen Stack, Barry Bishop from USA and Australian Warwick Deacock of “Aus venture”. They regularly start on to send clients from their country to trek in Nepal. And so “Mountain Travel” prospered and became an encouragement for other Nepalese tourism promoters to start their own trekking and adventure company in Nepal.

Nowadays one will find more trekkers then the climbers in Nepal. Because trekking is less physically challenging and one gets other experiences also apart from adventure.
Sir Edmund Hillary stated “Nepal is the only one country in the world. Which is also one of the world’s vast trekking paradises and one of the beautiful countries in the world for trekking.”