December 5: Nepal Mountain Academy, the government-run academic institution under Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, is gearing to produce 28 skiers. The trained skiers for the adventurous sports will be produced from two different training programmes, informed NMA.    
The first category of training will be for 20 participants for a week which is titled 'Ski Level-1 Training'. Likewise, another 11-day-long training would be for eight potential participants which is titled as 'Ski Level-2 Training'. For Ski Level-2 Training, participants must have accomplished Ski Level-1 Training.    
A public notice of the training has been made public last Thursday and the deadline for application is open until December 16. The training fee for both categories is Rs 5,000. Participants have to bear their own expenses for travel, accommodation and other related insurance packages.    
''This is our sixth batch enrollment for both categories,'' informed Uttam Babu Bhattarai, the director and the spokesperson at the NMA, ''We are preparing to promote winter tourism in our Himalayan regions and skiing is an indispensable part of it.''    
Bhattarai said it their first priority to produce more and more skilled skiers to promote this neglected part of Nepal's tourism. -- RSS