23/03/2020
Stay Home! Stay Safe! Stay Alert!
As schools and businesses close across the country due COVID-19, many climbers/trekkers now find themselves with a lot of free time. It may seem like an opportunity to hit the road and visit your favorite forts or climbing destination thinking what can be better than isolating yourself and enjoying the mountains when everyone’s going to be home. Also, it is very natural for a mountaineer or climber to feel mountains are the safest place and the COVID-19 cant affect us since we have dared every situation nature can throw at us. But this is not the time to be presumptuous, but really cautious.
Even if you do climb or trek or camp without incident, you are still creating more situations in which you'll be interacting with others: on the trails, and at the rocks because remember, you will not be the only one who thinks you will be alone and people can spread the disease before they show symptoms.
Nepal has started closing Mountains. In Chamonix, France, people are banned from the mountains. In Spain, the crags are closed for climbing. In Italy and Spain, recreational cycling is banned.
You may have heard now that social distancing (better defined as staying home and not venturing out) is necessary, to "keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients, so that those who are sick can be treated competently and compassionately." Only yesterday we thanked all the heroes who are doing relentless work so that we can be safe.
Climber and traveler Nicholas Martino created the handy flowchart below as a reference, which inevitably is applicable to each one who has that urge to go outdoors in these times of quarantine.
Girivihar has cancelled all its treks and climbing sessions for indefinite period. Also we have closed down all the climbing walls that we operate (YMCA, NMMC and Podar College).
We urge and call out to that one common feeling that every mountaineer, every climber, every trekker, every outdoor enthusiast has, we are a team and this is what our team needs to do now and set an example while you are at it!
Stay Safe and stay alert! Stay indoors, let the mountains get the rest they deserve!
