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Courses for the 2010 Nepal Study Program

1. Sport, Culture, and Society

Perceptions of risk and adventure among mountain sport participants and among host communities. Text: Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering, by Sherry B. Ortner. Ancillary topics include repercussions of interface between tourists and traditional caste societies (threats to ritual purity); risk management strategies; insurance.


 

2. Sport Marketing

Mountain ecotourism, backpacking, and non-traditional sports in the context of a developing country. Topics include the history and evolution of recreational tourism; ecological and cultural assets of Nepal; community management of commons (both spaces and events); notions of carrying capacity as applied to parks, peaks, and other destinations; channeling mechanisms, such as permits, fees, fallow seasons; special opportunities and problems of inhabited parks (park/non park interface (poaching, predation, roadkill, profit-sharing); stakeholder and landuse conflicts; special economic repercussions (volunteerism, sponsorships). Selected readings, including close study of mass-market guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Moon, Fodors) and Web sites.

 

3. Sport Event Management

Feasibility studies and planning for three proposed projects:

  1. Heroes of Rolwaling A three-sport competition to be held regularly in Nepal's Rolwaling Valley. The first leg would be the ascent of one of the 20,000-foot "trekking peaks" -- either Yalung Tse or Ramdung. This would be followed by a 20-mile run from Tsho Rolpa, at the head of the valley, to Simigaon, down to the Bhote Khosi river, and upstream to the ethnically Tibetan village of Lamabagar. From there, the third leg would be a kayak race downstream to the roadhead near Dolakha.
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  2. The Everest Classic A backpacking marathon from the trailhead at Jiri all the way to Everest Base Camp, 100 miles away. (Alternatively, the route might begin 80 km further west at Lamosangu, which was the trailhead before the Swiss Road was completed as far as Jiri in 1985.) Competitors will be divided into classes according to the weights they carry: 7.5 (memba), 15 (trekker), or 22.5 kg (porter). Ideally, the weights would consist of rice or other staples that can be used locally.)
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  3. Summiters Mountaineering School Located in Rolwaling, to be run and taught by Sherpas who are veteran climbers of the highest peaks in the world.

4. Applied Sport Marketing Research

TBA

For more details, please review the Program Rationale.


Looking west from Tsho Rolpa down Rolwaling Valley


   

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