MYAGDI, March 6: Qatar’s princess Asma Al-Thani has arrived in Myagdi in the course of her expedition to Annapurna I.  The 8,091 meters tall peak is the world's tenth highest mountain and it lies within the Annapurna Rural Municipality-1 of Myagdi district.

Her expedition is managed by the Elite Trekking Company. 

Al-Thani's team landed at Dana of Annapurna-3 via a helicopter of Simrik Air and the expedition is led by Nirmal Purja aka Nims who holds a world record for successfully climbing all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in the world.  

"Two members of our team will be arriving from Pokhara via the land route. The Qatari princess and I will be staying in Dana, which is my birthplace, for two days," Purja said and added that the expedition logistics have been already transported to the Annapurna Base Camp and the team aides are preparing for the expedition. The squad hopes to complete the mission by this month (March).  

Al-Thani is an experienced climber and she has already successfully scaled Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Manaslu, and Mt K2 in Pakistan. Upon her arrival here, the team was accorded with a warm welcome by the people's representatives and local residents of  Dana.    

A civic felicitation was organized for them, according to Annapurna-3 ward chair Ramesh Purja. The local representative said they were happy to welcome the princess from Qatar and Nirmal Purja who has really made a significant contribution to introduce Dana and Myagdi to the world and promote Nepal's identity internationally. "Nirmal is one of the world's courageous personalities." 

Dana-based tourism entrepreneur Indra Singh Sherchan said the visit by the Qatari princess would obviously help promote the local tourism. 

French national Maurice Herzog was the first person to climb Annapurna I along with Louis Lachenal on June 3, 1950. 

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