Climb school at height - global role for hmi in mountaineering training

Darjeeling, July 4: The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute has been nominated as a member of the training commission of the Switzerland-headquartered Union Internationale Des Association D’Alpinisme (UIAA), a global body that frames rules and policies on climbing.

As a member of the training commission, the HMI will have a role in evaluating and certifying training courses and methods of all mountaineering institutes and clubs affiliated to the UIAA across the globe.

The HMI had been made a member of the UIAA, which is also known as the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, in 2010.

Col. Neeraj Rana, the principal of the HMI, will be a part of the seven-member training committee. “The training commission will have to travel across the globe and evaluate the training schedules of various institutes and certify them according to the norms of the UIAA,” said Rana.

An approval by the training commission will mean that the certificates issued by the institute/club will be recognised globally.

The UIAA also lays down training standards to be followed world wide and recommends equipment for mountaineering and certifies them as safe. All new climbing techniques have to be approved by the UIAA.

“The training commission will also evaluate the training process of the HMI soon. The dates for the inspection of the HMI will be finalised at the UIAA governing council’s meeting which is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu from October 6 to 9,” said Rana.

However, Rana will not be a part of the training commission for the inspection of the HMI as he is the principal of the institute.

The foundation stone of the Darjeeling climb school was laid on November 4, 1954, by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru following the successful ascent of Mt Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary the previous year.

Darjeeling was chosen for the institute, as it was the hometown of Norgay. The institute was initially started at Roy Villa, which was Sister Nivedita’s house, on Lebong Cart Road and was shifted to the present location on the western spur of Birch Hill in 1958.

An HMI team had successfully scaled Mt Everest in 2003. Members of the institute also became the first Indian team to conquer Mt Makalu, the fifth highest peak in the world, on May 19, 2009.

Rana created a world record by being the first man to paraglide in Makalu — from camp I (6,850 metre) to the advance base camp (5,300 metre) — on May 12, 2009. 

-The Telegraph