SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, FEB 16 -
Australian-based adventure travel company World Expeditions in association with Highland Excursions Nepal announced the start of commercial trekking on the Great Himalaya Trail (GHT) on Wednesday.
The government had announced the GHT, the longest and highest alpine walking track in the world, as a new product to attract trekkers from around the world during the inauguration of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 on Jan. 14.
The entire GHT is 4,500 km long and passes through Pakistan, the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. The Nepali section of the GHT extends along the length of the country from Darchula and Humla in the west to Kanchenjunga in the east, and takes some 157 days to trek.
World Expeditions said that it had spilt the GHT in Nepal into seven sections of 18-34 days each. Trekking the whole trail costs around US$ 35,000, said Robin Boustead who documented the trail in Nepal in 2008. “Acknowledging that most people don’t have the luxury of this sort of time for adventure, we have devised seven treks that can be linked to make up the full traverse. The trip will be offered each year so that adventurers may choose to undertake the entire GHT over a number of years,” said World Expeditions.
The GHT is not a new product; it is the same trekking route that has been elegantly connected with the itineraries combining old and new routes. The route not only offers incredible biodiversity but is also associated with the objective of transforming untouched wilderness in the remotest districts into economic assets.
According to Highland Excursions Nepal, the product seller, more then 40 international trekkers have confirmed they would do the trek. “Trekkers all over the world are excited by the new product,” said Uma Khakurel, director of marketing and sales of Highland Excursions.
Khakurel added that the first ever commercial traverse of the GHT in Nepal would help support the people of the Himalaya to improve livelihoods, create employment and bring sustainable development opportunities to remote mountain communities.
The trail operators will raise A$ 100 from each trekker that will be given to the Australian Himalaya Foundation, an organisation helping the people of the Himalaya achieve their goals through improvements in health, education, environmental sustainability and conservation across the Himalaya.
Australian adventurer Robin Boustead documented the trail in Nepal in 2008. He completed the upper route of about 1,700 km which offers unparalleled trekking mixing high passes and alpine valleys.
“People along the trail are very excited,” said Boustead. The GHT will be one of Nepal’s unique products to increase quality and sustainable tourism. The GHT is an “international trekking trail” that emerged in the late 1990s in Nepal. However, it has been possible to walk over it since 2003.
All of the world’s 14 eight-thousander peaks can be seen on the trek. The westernmost point of the GHT is the world’s ninth highest peak, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. It winds past the sacred headwaters of the Ganges in India, the entire length of Nepal beneath Annapurna, Everest and Kanchenjunga, through Sikkim then Bhutan and eventually to India’s remote Arunachal Pradesh, Myanmar and Namche Barwa in Tibet.
In 2004, the GHT was adopted as a pro-poor tourism initiative in the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation’s Tourism Development Plan sponsored by the ADB in Nepal, Bhutan and India (Sikkim, Darjeeling and Arunachal Pradesh). With Nepal having the most to gain due to its geography, SNV and ICIMOD took up the concept in 2006. In 2008, SNV conducted the GHT first phase pilot project in Humla and Dolpa.
