3 September 2026
Nepal is known around the world for adventure. But behind that reputation is something much more important: a remarkable pool of highly trained Nepali professionals who know how to operate in some of the world’s most difficult terrain.
The response to the Rasuwa floods is showing exactly what that means.
Following the disaster, the Nepal Mountaineering Association mobilised specialist rescue personnel from Nepal’s mountaineering and adventure community, working alongside the Nepal Army and other government agencies.
Helicopter longline teams and ground rescue teams were deployed. Mountaineers, mountain guides, rafting guides, canyoneers and other technical rescue professionals were called on to contribute skills in rope rescue, swift-water rescue, river crossings, evacuation and difficult-terrain access.
Some of Nepal’s highly trained mountain guides have even taken these skills underground, entering mud-filled hydropower tunnels as part of attempts to reach people trapped inside.
These are skills developed over decades in Nepal’s mountains — now being applied in an entirely different emergency.
And then there is Captain Priya Adhikari.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Adhikari, Nepal’s first female helicopter captain, after she had flown around 100 rescue missions in less than a week.
Flying repeatedly into the narrow disaster-affected valley, she described around 20 helicopters operating and communicating continuously while evacuating people from extremely difficult landing areas.
Her explanation to CNN was remarkably simple:
“We are trained for this.”
And perhaps that says something important about Nepal.
The guides who take people into our mountains, the pilots who fly through them, the rescuers, climbers, rafting guides and adventure professionals are not simply people working in tourism.
They are highly skilled technicians.
And when Nepal needed them, those skills became part of the national disaster response.
Read more
The Tourism Times: NMA, NNMGA and NMIA deploy rescue teams for Rasuwa flood operation, 28 August 2026.
The Tourism Times: Nepal Mountaineering Association seeks technical rescue volunteers for Rasuwa flood response, 26 August 2026.
The Pratidhwani: Everest veterans, mountain guides enter choked hydropower tunnel to rescue 6, 30 August 2026.
