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Nepal’s Pokhara: the International Mountain Museum



With the Himalayas on the doorstep, Pokhara is the ideal place for the International Mountain Museum. Once remote and lacking transport routes, the now easily accessible city of Pokhara is itself a tourist attraction. To boost tourism during the non-climbing periods, the International Mountain Museum opened in May 2002 and was officially launched in February 2004 in Ratopahiro, beyond the city centre.
The IMM is a large and spacious hangar with a roof in the shape of the mountain peaks. It has two levels dedicated to all of the mountains of Nepal (and their mountaineers), not just Mt. Everest. Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepali), the world’s highest mountain, is 8,848 metres above sea level, but there are 14 peaks in the region over 8,000 metres. Masses of mountain photographs, pictures, graphs, and drawings hang on almost every wall and partition showing the peaks, mountain faces, trekking routes, expeditions, and Himalayas from every angle. Histories of mountain climbers appear in the museum, with displays of climbing equipment, rope knots, clothing, and tents, along with a list of records, particularly related to Mt. Everest: first ascent, first woman, youngest, oldest, most climbs by an individual, the highest number of daily ascents, and so on.

The Himalayan range has over 100 mountains above 7,000 metres (23,000 feet). The range extends from Pakistan to Nepal, India, Bhutan, Tibet and China.
Empty oxygen cylinders and empty gas cooking cartridges (garbage) are exhibited as part of the Noguchi/Asia clean up expedition from 2000-2003 of Mt. Everest and Mt. Lhotse (Everest’s adjacent peak at 8,516 metres). Included in the museum are life-sized models of indigenous mountain people, water colour paintings by Dr. Harka Gurung of native birds, a collection of postage stamps from all over the world depicting the Himalayas and Mt Everest, and The Tale of the Yeti, the abominable snowman, culminating with a model of the hairy yeti.

Posters of the Mt. Everest Golden Jubilee Celebration celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s summit climb on May 29, 1953, recognized as the first successful ascent in Nepal (the mountain is on the border between Nepal and Tibet). This year marks the 60th anniversary of the ascent.
In the grounds of the museum are a restaurant, souvenir shop, garden, a climbing wall, and a 9.5 metre (31 foot) model of a snow-covered Mt. Manaslu (8,163 metres), funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to commemorate its first climb on May 9, 1956 by Toshio Imanishio and Gyalzen Norbu. It has steps and holding cables so that visitors can climb and take photographs for a fun imitation of the ascent.




MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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