Kerry wants to travel to Nepal

Washington: US Secretary of State John Kerry has met a group of women mountaineers from Nepal and told them that he wants to travel to the Himalayan country and spend some time there.

"He (Kerry) told us that Nepal has been on his list of (countries to visit) for a really long time and he wants to visit Nepal sooner or later," climber Shailee Basnet told PTI after the group met him at the State Department this week. All the mountaineers were dressed in colorful sarees. Basnet, who is the team coordinator of the visiting Nepali women mountaineers, said that Kerry told them that they were inspirational. "He congratulated us. He also told us that his daughter has been to the base camp of Mt Everest," Basnet said. The all-women team climbed Mt. McKinley (Denali) in Alaska on June 24 and has now reached the top of six of the seven summits of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Only Antarctica`s Mount Vinson remains for them to conquer. Their goal is to become the first all-female team to climb the highest mountain on each continent, she said. The team has so far scaled the peaks in Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and South America. Nimdoma Sherpa, another climber from team called `Seven Summits Women Team` exuded confidence that Kerry would soon be able to visit Nepal. "That (meeting with Kerry) was unbelievable. We were very happy to meet with him and share our experience. He wants to visit Nepal and he wants to see some part of Nepal," she said. Among other members of the team are Pujan Acharya, Maya Gurung, Pema Diki Sherpa, Chunu Shrestha, and Asha Kumari Singh.