MYAGDI: Preparations are in the final phase for the Annapurna Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which mark the 75th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Annapurna I.
To participate in the event, foreign guests, including family members of the first climber Maurice Herzog, have arrived in Nepal.
Fourteen foreign guests have come to join the celebrations scheduled to begin on May 31 in Narchyang, Annapurna Rural Municipality-4, Myagdi, the location of the 8,091-meter Annapurna I and its base camp.
They landed in Kathmandu on Thursday and are expected to reach Pokhara today and Narchyang on Saturday, according to Bharat Kumar Pun, chairperson of the rural municipality.
“Among the guests are six from France, including Maurice Herzog’s son Mathieu and grandson Ethan, three from the UK, five from India, and one from Italy. They are attending the Jubilee event at the invitation of the Government of Nepal,” Pun said.
“All preparations for the Diamond Jubilee, which will be hosted under the chief patronage of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, have reached their final stage.”
The event is being organized to commemorate the historic climb made on June 3, 1950, by French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who became the first to summit an eight-thousander without supplemental oxygen. To honor this achievement, a series of events will take place.
Earlier, commemorative programs were held in Kathmandu and Pokhara on Annapurna Climbing Day. Annapurna is known as the first eight-thousand-meter peak ever summited by humans. It was only three years after this feat that Mount Everest was successfully climbed.
As part of the main Diamond Jubilee celebration, Prime Minister Oli is expected to attend a ceremony at the Annapurna Base Camp, where he will officially inaugurate a marathon race and unveil statues of Maurice Herzog, Louis Lachenal, and Nepali climber Sonam Wangchuk Sherpa.
Additionally, he will inaugurate an open-air museum at the base camp and the Maurice Herzog Trekking Route that links Narchyang to the base camp.
The Diamond Jubilee is being organized under the leadership of Annapurna Rural Municipality, in collaboration with the Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN), ECAP, and the Annapurna Rural Municipality Tourism Development Committee.
A 30-kilometer marathon race will be held to mark the occasion, with cash prizes of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000, and Rs 20,000 awarded to the top three finishers.
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