Young trekkers attend international mountaineering course

Italian envoy commits to train Swat youth

By Mahboob Ali Yousafzai

MINGORA: Italian ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo on Sunday said his country was committed to helping train the youth of Swat and other areas in various categories including mountaineering so that they could better serve Pakistan.

He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the first-ever two-week international mountaineering course titled "Environment-Friendly Mountaineering Course for Trekking Guides, The Swat Project" in Saidu Sharif here on Sunday.

The programme was organised by Mountain Wilderness, International and its Pakistan chapter funded by ISMEO-International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Italy.

The envoy said 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, which ended that day. "We will seriously work and assist the Mountain Wilderness in realising its dream to declare the mountains of Swat into National Park," said Stefano Pontecorvo.

As many as 21 young trekkers from different parts of Swat valley were trained. The training was led by renowned mountaineer and environmentalist Carlo Alberto Pinelli, who has also received Sitar-e-Imtiaz in 2016 for his outstanding work in the field of mountaineering, environmental protection and training in Pakistan.

Describing the aims and objectives of the programme, Carlo Alberto Pinelli said 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, which has ended.

"The trainees learnt how to keep the mountains' environment clean and learnt the skills and techniques how to discover mountains for mountaineering," he added. The trainer said the ultimate goal of the Swat project was to declare the beautiful mountains as a national park and open them for international mountaineering expeditions.

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

General Manager, Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP), Muhammad Ali Syed, thanked the organisers for the training. He said training the youth was a great service for which KPTC was grateful to the organisers.

"For the promotion of mountains tourism and expedition on international and national level, the TCKP will soon declare the 2019 or 2020 as the KP Mountain year and will launch various activities throughout the country," he said, adding that the trainees who received training in Swat would be registered as trekking guides to lead national and international mountaineer expeditions.

The speakers also said that the mountains of Swat had unique features and were technically challenging for mountaineers, which must be opened for international mountains expedition.

Earlier, Swat District Nazim Muhammad Ali Shah welcomed all the guests and thanked them to take interest in the mountains of Swat. He termed it a positive and beneficial effort for the promotion of mountain tourism in Swat. At the end, diplomas were distributed among the trainees for successfully completing the training course.