MINGORA: Speakers here on Sunday said that the mountains of Swat had unique features and were technically challenging for mountaineers which must be opened for international mountain expeditions.

They were speaking at the concluding ceremony of the first two-week international mountaineering course titled “Environment-Friendly Mountaineering Course for Trekking Guides, The Swat Project”, which was organised by the Mountain Wilderness International’s Pakistan chapter and International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Italy.

The training course was led by renowned mountaineer and environmentalist Carlo Alberto Pinelli who had also received Sitar-i-Imtiaz in 2016 for his outstanding work in the field of mountaineering, environmental protection and trainings in Pakistan.

As many as 21 young trekkers from different parts of Swat valley were trained.

Italian envoy says his country committed to training youth in Pakistan

Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo was the chief guest on the occasion while Swat district nazim Mohammad Ali Shah and KP tourism general manager Mohammad Ali were also in attendance.

Describing objectives of the training, Mr Pinelli said that training the youth of Swat to lead national and international mountaineers crossing the high altitude glaciers and rocks was the first step of the Swat project.

“The trainees also learnt how to keep the mountains’ environment clean besides the skills and techniques how to conduct survey and discover mountains for mountaineering,” he said, adding that the ultimate goal of Swat project was to declare the beautiful mountains of Upper Swat as national park and open them for international mountaineering expeditions.

In his address, the Italian ambassador congratulated the trainees and said that Italy and Pakistan enjoyed strong friendship.

“The Italian government is committed to helping train the youth of Swat and other parts in various categories, including mountaineering, so that they could serve their country in a better way. We will seriously work and assist the Mountain Wilderness in realising its dream to declare the mountains of Swat as a national park,” he said.

Giving a brief overview of the landscape and features of Swat mountains, Mountain Wilderness Pakistan chapter’s president Afzal Sherazi said that Swat had some beautiful and unique mountains of both the Himalaya and Hindukush ranges.

“They are not only beautiful, but also technically challenging for climbers and mountaineers, especially Falak Sar, Mankial Sar, Miangul Sar and some other peaks,” he said, adding that international and national mountaineers would enjoy climbing them.

Mohammad Ali said that training youth of the country was an honourable service for which the KP tourism department was obliged.

“For the promotion of mountain tourism and expedition on international and national level, the KP tourism department will soon declare 2019 or 2020 as the ‘KP Mountain Year’ and will launch various activities throughout the country,” he said, adding that those who got training in Swat would be registered as trekking guides.

The young trainees said that they learnt different skills, including rock and glacier climbing, treating mountain sickness, first aid course and leading mountaineers on rocks and glaciers.

Earlier, the district nazim thanked the guests for taking interest in the mountains of Swat and termed it a positive effort for promotion of mountain tourism in region. In the end, certificates were distributed among those who completed the training course.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018