A press conference was organized on 7 January 2008 at NMA to shade light on Annual Winter Aspirant Guide Course 2008 to be conducted jointly by Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) from 5 - 25 January 2008 at Kathmandu, Langtang and Paldor under the supervision of Mr. Anselme Baud, member of IMFGA. Mr. Dinesh Hari Adhikari, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) was the chief guest for the program. NMA President Mr. Ang Tshering Sherpa welcomed all the guests while Mr. Sunar Gurung, President of NNMGA highlighted about the importance of the training for the Nepalese mountaineers. He mentioned that mountaineers having completed Basic and Advance Mountaineering Course with Ecole National Ski de'alpanism degree conducted at ENSA, France are the basic requirements for this training. Supervisor from International Federation of Mountain Guide Association (IMFGA) Mr. Anseleme Baud expressed his happiness for the effort to carry out such training and asured that this training will definitely produce skilled mountaineers. The chief guest, in his speech, congratulated NMA for being able to conduct such type of training of international standard to provide international standard Nepali guide. He assured the cooperation from MoCTA to NMA to conduct further such trainings to develop mountaineering profession as a safe tourism profession. 10 male and 1 female trainees are participating in this training.