Women On The Up Track


Written by Huma Iqbal • Features • March 2010

Female mountain guides are like a breath of fresh air in Nepal and a useful addition to its fast-growing trekking industry. Nepal has captured the imagination of mountaineers, trekkers and tourists ever since it opened its borders in the 1950s. Today, the tourism industry is one of Nepal's biggest foreign exchange earners. Thousands of tourists flock every year to the lush green valleys of the country, while many more come to discover the countless wonders of trekking and climbing the imposing Himalayas.

In 2008, the country recorded the highest tourist growth for the second year running. Tourist arrivals were pushed up by visitors from Europe, South Asia and America. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, more than 550,000 tourists visited the country in 2009 and contributed to huge revenues.

Mountaineers and trekkers comprise a good portion of tourists visiting Nepal. Himalayan trekking, a legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mt. Everest in 1953, is an important industry in the country. It accounts for 8 percent of Nepal's GDP and is the third largest revenue earner, after agriculture and industry. It also provides employment to thousands of people.

Several trekking companies work in Nepal to assist foreign trekkers. They offer services ranging from lodging and setting up camps in the valleys, to providing trek guides and porters. While the industry is dominated by male trekking guides, a pleasant change has come about in recent years, with female guides and porters making their appearance on the rugged treks. These women climb the steep mountains as nimbly as men, carrying heavy backpacks and guiding the trekkers. This is an interesting phenomenon in the otherwise conservative Nepalese society.

The initiative to hire females as trek guides was taken by Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN), an NGO founded by three Nepalese sisters, Lucky, Dicky and Nicky Chhetri in 1995. Their basic aim was to support rural women by providing them work opportunities and giving them a chance to improve their economic conditions.

Nepalese women, particularly those coming from the rural areas, are often deprived of their right to education, health and employment. They are denied property and inheritance rights and almost half of all Nepali women are wed underage. The country has one of the widest gender gaps in primary education in the world while their health conditions are also a cause for worry.

Now many of these women have found a way out of the social constraints and the penury of traditional agricultural labor. They enroll themselves with the 3 sisters Adventure Trekking company and confidently climb the freezing rocky trails. They serve as useful guides as they are familiar with the valleys and mountains. In fact, now that there are more woman trekkers heading for Nepal, the female guides are in greater demand to serve as guides, porters and companions during the tough expeditions. They are also an answer to complaints of harassment of visiting female trekkers by male guides.
Working on the mountains offers unique challenges for the female guides. They typically work alone and often find themselves alone in crowded dining rooms, sleeping alongside male guides and porters, who are often drunk and occasionally resentful. They are sometimes heckled and teased and are expected to prove their physical and mental capabilities each day on the trails, as they are closely scrutinized by their male colleagues.

The social and economic benefits, however, are a great source of motivation for these women, who are enrolling at a high rate to be trained as guides. The 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking company also facilitates the female trekkers' needs by running an on-site child care center for guides working on the mountains, supplying them with adequate clothing for higher altitude treks, paying them a decent $10 a day, an impressive wage in a country with a per capita gross domestic product of $260 and, most importantly, offering them a fulfilling life, free from household abuse and social constraints.