Great Himalaya Trail 2023 - Meet the trekkers

These boots were made for walkin'!

Fifty-five-year-old Ute Baird, from Staffordshire, aims to join a handful of people from the United Kingdom to complete the 1,700-kilometre-long Great Himalaya Trail in Feburary 2023. The trail is often referred to as “trekking’s holy grail”. It was launched in 2011.

The Full Nepal Traverse of the Great Himalaya Trail goes up to 6,190 metres above sea level and offers stunning views, including eight peaks of more than 8,000 metres. An undertaking not for the faint-hearted, it can be broken into seven smaller stages, from 18 to 34 days—however, Ute and Tabea Wagner (more on Tabea here) have committed to the full trek, which takes five months.

An ultra-distance runner, Ute discovered the Great Himalaya Trail recently, when GB Ultra offered it as a virtual challenge. The experience prompted her to look into the route online and she noticed that World Expeditions was the only company offering the Full Traverse in Nepal.

Commenting on her decision to join the Great Himalaya Trail, she says:

“It will be such an adventure to get off the beaten track into remote areas of Nepal. What is the point to work-work-work and then say ‘it is too late, I should have done this or that’. Do it while you can.”

“Trekking every day, experiencing nature and living a relatively simple life will be rewarding and humbling at the same time. Admittedly, trekking the Great Himalaya Trail from east to west in one trip and being among the relatively few having done this has some attraction too… especially if you think that about five times as many people have been in space!”

In her adventure of a lifetime, she will be joined by 30-year old Tabea Wagner from Germany. Tabea describes herself as “addicted to long distance hiking trails” and in the last few years she has completed a number of trekking tours, including the GR20 in Corsica, Rando-Lofoten in Norway and crossing the Alps, as well as spending three months on the Te Araroa in New Zealand.

Commenting on signing up for this year’s Great Himalaya Trail, she said:

“I am excited to be part of this great adventure. Loving the mountains, the Great Himalaya Trail had always been in my mind. After having worked a lot in the last few years and having limited options because of the pandemic, I felt it is time to make my dream come true and registered at World Expeditions for the Full Traverse.”

“As I have never been to the Himalaya before it was important for me to join a professional expedition. I am looking forward to seeing the world’s highest mountains, remote landscapes, sleep in a tent and walk on and on every day and I simply can’t wait to meet great people, make new friends and spend an amazing time in Nepal.”

The Full Nepal Traverse of the Great Himalaya Trail 2023 starts on 26 February and finishes five months later, on 25 July. There is still time to join one of the smaller sections.

The Nepal Traverse of the Great Himalaya Trail – the longest and highest alpine walking track in the world once complete – became first available through World Expeditions in 2011, which remains the only specialist operator to offer the trip commercially.

Winding between the largest mountains and remotest communities on the planet, the Great Himalaya Trail will ultimately connect five Asian countries (Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan) but at the moment only the Nepal section (1,700km) is available to traverse, as it is the only part that has been walked and mapped thoroughly.

Inspired? View all the Great Himalaya Trail sections.