Toni Wilson a single mum from Surrey became the first person to complete the World’s toughest alpine trek on the 21st July, 2011.
Beginning in February this year, Toni along with teacher Greg Babbage from New South Wales, Australia, became the first people to complete a non-stop journey across a trail described as trekking’s new Holy Grail.
A 1,700 km journey crossing the Himalayan nation of Nepal from East to West, known as: the Nepal section of the Great Himalayan Trail.
Although 4,000 people have now climbed the summit of Everest, not one person has ever completed this non-stop traverse of Nepal from Kangchenjunga (Far East) to Humla (Far West) – until now.
Crossing more than 30 high altitude passes, over 5,000m, through: blizzards, over dangerous crevasses, down massive slippery walls of ice and breath-taking mountain scenery – much of which has never been seen by Western eyes.
As the only ones to sign up for this new commercial trek, by the pioneering out-fit World Expeditions, it is made more astonishing that neither Toni nor Greg are professional mountaineers!
They were not entirely alone: the Great Himalaya Trail was also split into seven smaller stages, to allow other trekking enthusiasts to join them on separate stages of the five-month trek. They were also joined by some of the world’s elite mountaineers and adventurers, including Great Himalaya Trail architect Robin Boustead, veteran British mountaineer Stephen Venables, Australian adventurer Sorrel Wilby and the pioneering American alpinist Carlos Buhler.
Read the trekkers’ dedicated blog at www.trekthegreathimalayatrail.com. For more information on World Expeditions and the Great Himalaya Trail in 2012, please visit www.worldexpeditions.co.uk or call 0800 0744 135.
