Nepal Doesn’t Want You to Trek Alone in the Himalayas Anymore

One of the world’s top trekking destinations will soon put a stop to solo hiking.

Nepal, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, announced that starting April 1, independent trekkers will not be allowed to venture out in its national parks without the help of a guide. The decision, the Nepal Tourism Board said, is primarily because of safety reasons. 

“When you are travelling solo, in case of emergencies there is no one to help you,” Mani Raj Lamichhane, the Nepal Tourism Board spokesperson, told CNN this week. 

“The infrastructure is not adequate,” he added. “When tourists go missing or they are found dead, even the government cannot track them because they have taken remote routes.”

Nepal is one of South Asia’s poorest nations, and though tourism accounts for just 7 percent of national GDP, it’s the country’s fourth-largest industry by employment. In rural and mountainous parts of Nepal, trekking is a major source of income and supports entire villages. 

Officials say the move will generate revenue for the country and create tens of thousands of new tourism jobs for Nepalis at a time when an increasing number are choosing to go abroad for work. 

Nepal is known globally for its challenging Himalayan expeditions, unpredictable weather conditions and a fragile landscape prone to deadly avalanches. The world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, is in Nepal and in recent years has seen growing traffic jams as more people flock to climb it. Over 300 people have died doing so since 1922. 

Lamichhane cited 2019 Nepal Tourism Board data that found that 50,000 tourists trekked in Nepal without a guide or a porter that year. 

The new rule applies to all established trekking routes across 12 national parks, which fall within the purview of Nepal’s Trekkers’ Information Management System. Trekkers will not be issued a permit without hiring a porter or a guide, and the trek fee has been increased too. The new rules won’t apply to Nepalise nationals. 

A similar ban was considered in 2012 after a 23-year-old American yoga teacher’s disappearance in 2012 put a spotlight on a string of unsolved disappearances, attacks and deaths in Nepal’s popular hiking routes. Some women reported facing sexual assault while one Swiss trekker was beaten up by a former communist rebel in 2007. 

Nilhari Bastola, president of Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN), the apex body of the country’s trekking agencies, told VICE World News that solo trekkers have been a big issue for organisations like theirs. TAAN has been lobbying for a one-trekker one-guide system since 2012, when it announced a similar ban which was overturned by the country’s tourism ministry the same year. 

“Adventurists who trek alone often don’t have enough knowledge about aspects like altitude sickness, or disasters like landslides. We’ve seen many deaths every year,” said Bastola. 

Bastola said at least five people go missing while trekking alone every year in Nepal. 

“Over the years, many countries have reached out to Nepal’s embassies demanding answers, but we don’t have those answers,” said Bastola. “So it’s necessary for people to take at least one local guide to be safe.”

There’s been a fair bit of criticism about this rule, especially from climbers who say taking a guide is expensive, or that it restricts trekkers’ freedoms. 

“Nepal has lots of tourism infrastructure and unless [the rule is for] risky treks, this is nonsense,” said one Twitter user called Basanta. Another called Alan Arnette, a mountaineer, tweeted that this rule has been “loosely enforced” for years before its formalisation this month. 

Bastola said this anger is temporary, and “more tourists will come, I’m confident.” 

“Coming to Nepal is already pretty affordable. If they get one guide or a helper, it’ll just cost them $100 extra,” said Bastola. “That amount doesn’t make a difference to the tourists, but has the potential to support entire families in Nepal.”

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