POKHARA: ‘Let’s go hang from a waterfall!’

About a decade ago, Mohani Khanal’s friends in Kathmandu approached him with a proposal.

At first, he was taken aback. He was dazed, wondering what hanging from a waterfall even meant, since a waterfall is typically a place people visit to view or take a bath under.

Nevertheless, he followed his friends and arrived at Sundarijal. There, he saw people holding ropes, stepping on walls where water was gushing down, and climbing up with great effort. He was astonished to see people enjoying such a sport. This sport was canyoning, which ultimately enchanted Mohani.

After taking training and learning the craft of this sport, he began enjoying himself in the waterfalls. Wrestling with the rushing waters of the cascades, he started scaling the walls of waterfalls.

Adventure sports became an exciting world for him.

Mohani has now turned this hobby into a business. Through this, he has been involved in tourism promotion for the past decade.

The door opened by ‘Masane Gairo’

His passion for canyoning took Mohani to France in 2016. He went there to undergo technical training for canyoning. After training there for a year, he returned to Nepal.

A resident of Waling Municipality in Syangja, he saw the potential for tourism through canyoning in a waterfall located in his own village and region. There is a Khalte waterfall in Waling Municipality-4. He started canyoning there in the year 2020.

Hearing his plan to run adventure sports at Khalte waterfall, locals initially mocked him. People did not mock him because of the sport itself, but because of the location he chose for it. The ravine where the waterfall is located was known as ‘Masane Gairo’ (a haunted gorge/cremation ground). People were afraid to even go near it, believing it was haunted by ghosts. Out of fear that invisible entities would pull them in if they went there, people were terrified to go there even for grazing cattle or gathering fodder.

In such an atmosphere of terror, Mohani devised a plan to gather local youth there and provide them with canyoning training. In addition to choosing a terrifying place, locals opposed him for making the youth play a risky sport. “The villagers scolded me, saying that while hanging from the waterfall, the rope would snap and break limbs, and questioned what kind of sport this was,” he recalls.

However, after convincing them, he succeeded in training the youth. Along with this, hearing the experiences of domestic and foreign guests who came to do canyoning, the locals also gradually began to understand it.

When he conducted canyoning in Syangja, the Nepal Tourism Board supported him. The technical team of the Nepal Canyoning Association also helped.

Since then, he has been continuously involved in the promotion of canyoning. He has linked canyoning as an additional activity at the Suntalabari Homestay in Syangja. This has extended the stay of tourists by at least one day. In Syangja, canyoning is operational in two places: Waling-4 and Bayarghari.

He is dedicated to ensuring that canyoning must also be prioritized to promote adventure tourism across the entire Gandaki Province. For this, a team including him visits various waterfalls to conduct studies. He mentions that after a feasibility study in Aandhikhola Rural Municipality of Syangja, canyoning is about to come into operation. In Kaski as well, canyoning is about to start operating in a new location.

When talking about Gandaki Province, the first canyoning officially registered and operated as a business is ‘Pokhara Canyoning’. Located in Machhapuchchhre Rural Municipality of Kaski, tourists flock to this canyoning site. Along with this, canyoning is also operational in Lamjung and Parbat. However, Mohani complains that canyoning has not received as much publicity and promotion as it should have.

Challenges of the sport

The Canyoning Association has been producing canyoning guides by providing training. However, Mohani states that the lack of skilled manpower is the main challenge of this business. Since tourists do not come in every season, trained manpower does not retain because they do not get regular employment. He says, “If guests kept coming and regular employment was created, they would stay here. Since the work is like a part-time job that happens sometimes and doesn’t happen other times, they migrated abroad.”

He states that one cannot take risks in this sport by using makeshift manpower.

According to him, this sport can be played in every season. It can also be played by adjusting the water flow according to the preference of the tourists. “Abroad, there is also a practice of playing dry canyoning. Therefore, the water flow does not necessarily have to be high for this,” he says.

His view is that although there is immense potential for canyoning tourism in Nepal, the government has failed to understand it.

According to him, there is no clear policy regarding this. “In our country, policies and acts are not clear; they haven’t touched upon all sectors.

Mountaineering, rock climbing, and rafting have separate provisions made, but canyoning has not even been mentioned,” he says. “Our point is that let’s not throw all sports into one basket, but address them specifically; our struggle is right there.”

There is also an infrastructure problem in canyoning. An easy pathway to reach the waterfalls is not available in all locations.

Amidst these problems and challenges, groups interested in adventure sports are promoting canyoning on their own. Mohani says that it would be a huge relief if the government only supported them in producing skilled manpower. “In many places, infrastructure needs to be built, but we will do that ourselves. It is enough if the government helps by providing training to produce canyoning guides,” he says.