We are wrapping up our tour through Southeast Asia and about to embark on the next Chapter: Nepal and the Great Himalaya Trail (GHT). The GHT is a proposed trail that will stretch from one end of the Himalaya Mountains to the other. So far only the Nepal and Bhutan sections have been walked, mapped, and documented. The other sections are still being researched. The Nepal section offers a High Trail version and a Low Trail version. The Low Trail crosses through villages and is called "The Cultural Route". The High Trail traverses through the heart of the Himalaya range with an average altitude between 12,000' and 15,000'. The Nepal section was first done over two seasons in 2008-09 by Robin Boustead and his team.
The GHT was first hiked in one season during 2010, involving a combination of the high and low routes. Our focus is on the High Trail, which hasn't yet been completed in one season. A large part of this is weather and conditions permitting, however. Snow conditions will be the biggest factor on whether we attempt the biggest passes of the High Trail. If conditions are too hazardous then we will detour around these areas on the Low Route. When we arrive in Nepal in a week we are going to do a "shakedown" trek to asses conditions at Tillman Pass which is one of the most difficult passes we would cross on the trail.The amount of time it takes to cover the GHT is highly variable. Some of the first expeditions took 120-150 days but in recent years the speed record was set at 49 days. We have talked to some other people that we believe move at a similar pace and figure it should take 9 or 10 weeks. The wild thing about this trail is that it is a trek in and of itself to get to and from the trailhead.
We are fortunate to be joined in this endeavor by two great friends: Molly Eimers and Seth Wolpin. Molly will be joining us from Idaho and Seth from Washington. We know Molly and Seth through trail racing and our ultrarunning community; both have a zest for outdoor pursuits and lead lifestyles of adventure. Seth has most recently been spending a lot of time in Nepal helping lead treks and a stage race in the Everest and Annapurna circuit. He has a lot of contacts over there in relation to this trail and has been the driving force in gathering data on what we are about to attempt. We can't thank him enough for the work he has put into this.To learn more about Molly and Seth, you may visit their blogs at http://missmoeimers.blogspot.com/ and http://www.sethwolpin.com, respectively.
Once we get going communication will be mostly via GPS and SPOT. You may track our GPS coordinates through our team website ("Where Are We?" tab) that should show a map and our last GPS coordinates. SPOT will be posted under "Current Location" on this blog. Bear in mind SPOT coverage is reported to not be that good in Nepal.We also have a satellite phone and an SOS function on our GPS trackers in case there's an emergency. For photos, updates and other ramblings we have created our team facebook page called Great Himalaya Traverse which you are welcome to join.
Finally, as we trek we are raising funds for an organization called Wide Open Vistas which helps improve education and health outcomes for Sherpa children in Nepal. $10 will send a kid to school for a month. Our goal is to try to raise at least $5000. See Wide Open Vistas or visit our team website ("How to help") to learn more about our fundraising campaign and how you can help. Thanks for all your support everyone! We'll be in touch when we can.
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