Amidst the fear of recent pandemic COVID-19, young tourism entrepreneur and senior Trekking Guide Dipesh Babu Subedi of Pokhara started a trekking trip to Manaslu circuit on 1st of March, 2020. He was Guiding Mr. Louk Goorhuis and Mrs. Gayle Van Der kraaij from the Netherlands. They were aiming to cross Larkya La(pass) 5160m.
Normally, month of March is the season for Trekking tourism. Most of the rhododendron blossoms are blooming. Hillsides along the trekking trails look pretty amazing and weather and visibility are supposed to be fairly clear. But; in recent years, weather is becoming more unpredictable. Some winter, there is hardly any snow on the Mountain passes, but this winter there was very heavy snowfall in most parts of the Himalaya. Four foreign Trekkers and three Nepali support crews lost their lives in avalanche in Annapurna base camp trail during the month of January.
Dipesh Babu Subedi and his team had to return back retracing the same route from Samagaon(3520m). There was more than two feet snow on the trail which started from Namrung village ( 2630m).
We can not control the weather but we need to understand and study these patterns so that we can perform better in coming days. It can be quite disappointing for the paying guests who come to Nepal for Adventure Holidays from far away. If we can not meet their expectations, they may not recommended Nepal within their Network. Nepal’s most effective marketing tool is ” Word of Mouth”.
