Nehru Institute of Mountaineering celebrates 54th foundation day; Uttarkashi

UTTARKASHI: The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), the country’s premier mountaineering training institute located in Uttarkashi, celebrated its 54th foundation day on Wednesday.
The celebrations coincided with the graduation ceremony of the 255th basic mountaineering course, in which 117 mountaineers, including seven from foreign countries, were awarded certificates and badges.
Principal of NIM Colonel Amit Bisht told TOI, “NIM has given the country nearly 28,500 mountaineers, including legendary ones like Bachendri Pal, Chandraprabha Aitwal, Arjun Vajpai, Arunima Singh among others.”
NIM was established in 1965 to impart basic and advanced courses as well as search and rescue and special mountaineering training.The institute has also hosted 1st Asia Cup, 13th National Cup and 1st Uttarakhand Cup in the field of artificial wall climbing in 2004, 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Speaking about future plans, Colonel Bisht said, “We have decided to climb 10 virgin peaks near the Gangotri glacier of the Himalayas in 2019 within a month and set a world record. Besides, we have also decided to develop a sports climbing infrastructure of international level, to be used to train the national team for the 2020 Olympics.”
The institute was also actively involved in the reconstruction of Kedarnath valley and rescue expeditions during the 2013 flash floods.