Nepal will soon open the world's longest and highest alpine trekking route, aiming to attract walking tourists from all over the world. The Great Himalayan Trial (GHT), stretching some 2,800 miles along the full range of the Himalayan region, is scheduled to be inaugurated on Jan. 14, 2011, in Kathmandu, according to the Nepal Tourism Year Implementing Committee.

Currently, 95 percent of the 120,000 trekkers visiting Nepal annually do not go beyond the Annapurna, Langtang or Everest regions. Only around 6,200 trekkers venture off the beaten track.

“The long-term aim is to connect the six Asian countries of Pakistan, China (Tibet Autonomous Region), India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar via a route covering more than 4,500 km of the Great Himalaya range,” said Lisa Choegyal, consultant to the project and Honorary Consul designate for New Zealand in Nepal.

The westernmost point of the GHT is the world’s ninth highest peak, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, and 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.

Spectacular views include all of the world’s 14 highest peaks. Robin Boustead documented Nepal’s part of the trail in detail in 2008. He completed an upper route of about 1,700 km (1,000 miles), which offers high-altitude adventure visitors unparalleled trekking, mixing high passes and alpine valleys, she said.

“Nepal’s three main trekking routes, Everest, Annapurna and Langtang, attract thousands of visitors every year. However, with the visitors preferring new trekking destinations and the country’s strategy to diversify tourism products to other regions, this concept has been implemented,” said Kashi Raj Bhandari, director, research, planning and monitoring, Nepal Tourism Board.

The GHT is not new; 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 bio-diversity but is also associated with the objective to transform untouched wilderness in the remotest districts into economic assets, Bhandari said.

After the project is accomplished, its ownership will be entrusted to the government of Nepal.