Tourism deptt organizes ice-climbing at Phrislan
Srinagar: The department of tourism Kashmir organized day ice-climbing at Chandanwari in Pahalgam in which many trained mountaineers from Jammu and Kashmir Mountaineering and Hiking Club and Glacier Trekking, Mountaineering and Hiking Club participated with the collaboration of Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports.
Only regular climbers like Nawab Moazum Khan, Ghulam Mohammad Wani, Khursheed Beigh led by climbing instructor Juniad Beigh are making attempts to climb 60-feet ice-fall at Phrislan in Chandanwari to make it a popular activity in Kashmir and to attract adventure lovers from across globe.
Director Tourism Kashmir Mahmood A Shah said this extreme adventure sports activity has an international appeal which can attract adventure lovers from across the globe.
“We have 60-feet steep ice fall at Phrislan village in Chandanwari which is an ideal spot for ice-climbing. This is a very expensive sport and mostly foreigners attempt to climb such frozen icefalls around the globe. We are making our youth especially professional climbers trained in this sport so that they can participate in future ice-climbing events,” said Director Tourism Kashmir.
He said the department started ice-climbing activity at Chandanwari which is accessible to the beginners also.
“There are more ice formations in Kashmir which are not easily accessible which also need highly skillful climbers. We have started the activity from Chandanwari and later under the expert guidance we can attempt ice-climbing at other spots,” said Director tourism Kashmir.
“We want to promote adventure sports in a big way as it will provide employment to the local youth and also attract high-spending travellers. We will be organizing more such activities in future for youth,” he said.