NIM and HMI to Start Online Theory Classes

The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi, one of India’s leading mountaineering institutes, will start offering digital classes from July.

India’s oldest mountaineering institute, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute of Darjeeling, intends to do the same.

The online courses will include theoretical classes on mountaineering, comprising map-reading, tips on diet and survival, and other dos and don’ts. It will also include first aid training, a history of mountaineering, mountaineering ethics, risk factors, types of peaks, and lessons in team spirit.

At NIM, 600 students will start online training in July. The batches will include those whose classes were disrupted in March due to the lockdown, as well as those who were to join sessions in July.

Colonel Amit Bisht, the Principal of NIM, said, “We have planned online theory classes for all regular courses that we run such as basic, advance, search and rescue and adventure.

“These courses last up to 28 days, including both theory and field training.” According to him, the decision to hold online classes was made so that future batches did not get delayed.

Group Captain Jai Kishan, the Principal of HMI in Darjeeling, said they had similar plans. There is no clarity on when institutes can resume classes. So we will launch online classes for the theory part and then start field training when we will reopen,” he said.

Twenty instructors have attended online classes so far.

However, some institutes have questioned the logic behind such classes. Colonel Neeraj Rana, the director of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Himachal Pradesh, said, “Classroom training makes up for only 15% of the course structure and this can easily be conducted once institutes reopen, we don’t see the reason for this hurry.”

Jawed Ahmed Lone, who leads the training at Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering, Jammu and Kashmir, felt that it is difficult to tell whether students are being attentive in online classes. This was important because theory lessons are crucial for survival at 20,000 feet, he said.