Nepal, Dec. 29 -- "Women cannot trek. They are too weak. They will turn back after a couple of days on the trail. Going to the mountains is too dangerous for them. They should stay at home," these were some of the prejudices that Nepal's first female trekking guides faced.

"It was a totally new concept for women to be guiding. It was difficult in the beginning; we had to explore everything ourselves," says Lucky Chhetri, one of the three founders of Empowering Women of Nepal, an NGO that has been training female trekking guides for more than 25 years.

Lucky Chhetri and her two younger sisters Dicky and Nicky, grew up in the Darjeeling region to Nepali parents. Never would they have imagined making a career in outdoor sports. "In our chi...