by Abdullah Bai Islamabad:  A climber from Poland has fallen to death at a mountain peak in Shimshal’s Ghujerav valley while his friend has been rescued. According to Shaheen Baig, leader of a rescue team, the two Polish climbers, llzuck Michael Jakob and Bogdanski Jakob had gone to Ghujerav Valley three days ago to attempt a little-known 6,200m-high Dhee Sar …

High Asia Herald Exclusive Islamabad:  Two Polish mountain climbers are stranded at a little known peak in Ghujerav valley of Shimshal in upper Hunza, The High Asia Herald learnt late Thursday evening. A seven-member rescue team from Shimshal led by Shaheen Baig, a renowned mountaineer and K2 summiteer has been sent for the rescue operation. The two climbers with their …

Global community unites to celebrate “tourism and rural development” High Asia Herald Report The 2020 edition of World Tourism Day, with the theme of “Tourism and Rural Development”, celebrates the unique role that tourism plays in providing opportunities outside of big cities and preserving cultural and natural heritage all around the world.  The aim of the day is to raise awareness …

The team is there to re-measure the height of Everest, which is on the two countries’ border A team of Chinese surveyors have scaled Mount Everest, becoming the only climbers to summit the world’s highest peak during the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese media report the team is there to re-measure the height of Everest, which is on the two countries’ border. …

    M Ajmal K Masood   While travelling to the north, most of the youth make their travelling statuses as ‘mountains are calling’. This phrase is not merely a social media buzzword but resonates the social, cultural and spiritual relations between the people and the mountains. In the primitive age, human being living in mountainous regions such as High …

Globally over 75m jobs are at risk in tour and hospitality sectors, 48.7m in Asia-Pacific and 75,000 in Pakistan   High Asia Herald Report As adventure tourism season in Pakistan draws closer and the country reeling from the devastating impact of coronavirus pandemic, the tour operators in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral are still hoping against hope. Although Pakistan has eased lockdown and …

Herald Report An Italian hard rock ballad has penned a song to in memory of two young climbers who met a tragic death while pursuing their passion on one of the 14 high mountains in the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan region. The tragic end of Italian climber Daniele Nardi and his British colleague Tom Ballard during an ascent on the most difficult …

The pandemic causes a 22% decline in tourist arrivals in Q1, or $80bn loss, says UNWTO reports   Herald Report The coronavirus pandemic has caused 22% fall in international tourist arrivals in the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2020 and could further drop by 60-80% over the whole year, says a report. The UN tourism watchdog says 67 …

In 1856, the Maharaja Gulab Singh ruled the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir, with the blessing of the British. Lieutenant Thomas George Montgomerie, the commissioner of the Great British Trigonometric Survey of India, was trying to ascertain the heights of the peaks in northwestern Kashmir, but he couldn’t actually get close to ones he wanted to measure: He was …

News Desk As some countries start to see light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and authorities struggle to balance safety and the economy, a few signals hint that hope is not lost for the summer climbing season in Pakistan, writes Angela Benavides in the ExplorersWeb. Like every other country in the world, Pakistan is suffering from the pandemic. …

GlacierHub celebrated five stories of women in the cryosphere as part of the celebrations of ‘Women’s History Month’   Junko Tabei, Japanese climber On May 16, 1975, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 m. Tabei is also the first woman to climb the Seven Summits, the …

Herald Report   The worldwide spread of coronavirus that has devastated the global economy has also hit hard the tourism and hospitality industry with major tourist destinations seeing limited visitors while several airlines have suspended or limited their operations. The World Tourism Organisation of the United Nations, (UNWTO) in response to the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, has cancelled immediately, all its …

10 bodies have been fished out of the might Indus; rescue work continues to recover 16 others HAH Correspondent SKARDU, March 9: At least 26 passengers including two minor children, a mountaineer, and an army man died in a road accident at Rondu, Skardu district of Baltistan on Monday, local administration and police officials confirmed to The High Asia Herald. …

Mount Damavand, Alborz mountain range, Iran. Photo: Matthew Traver by Matthew Traver Since 1980, more than 400 people have climbed the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each continent writes Matthew Traver in the ExplorersWeb.Com. A lesser-known and rarely attempted sister challenge is the Volcanic Seven Summits, which was first accomplished by Italian Mario Trimeri and 16-year-old Romanian Crina …

Polish climbers team terminate expedition even before reaching the base camp   Ali Qurban Mughani   PASSU: The Polish climbers have called off their winter expedition to summit Batura 1 through the challenging route in the westernmost sub-range of the Karakoram Range in Gojal, Hunza District. The eight-member team, led by noted climber Rafael Fronia, and comprised of 22 local …