The Himalayan Women Trail Leaders Initiative (HWTL) is a joint social-impact partnership between Equity Global Treks (EGT) and The Porter Voice Collective (PVC), established to advance gender equity, leadership, and professional opportunities for Nepali women in the trekking industry. Grounded in extensive field research, long-distance trekking, and sustained engagement with mountain communities, HWTL seeks to ensure that women are recognized as skilled leaders within the Himalayan tourism sector.

Origins and Context

The initiative emerged from the Great Himalaya Trail: Women Leaders on the Trail Campaign (2024) (GHT Women Leaders on the Trail Phase 1 — Brown Gal Trekker), during which Mingmar Dolma Sherpa and Marinel de Jesus completed more than 100 days of walking across seven commercial sections of the Great Himalaya Trail, from Kanchenjunga to the Annapurna region. This expedition provided an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and systemic challenges experienced by female trekking guides in Nepal. The findings from this campaign became the foundation for developing a broader, long-term strategy to support female leadership within the industry.

All-Female Guide Directory: A New Model for Booking Guides in Nepal

A major component of HWTL is the creation of the first all-female trekking guide directory in Nepal. This directory is designed not only to increase visibility for women guides but also to introduce a new model of guide selection and booking within the country.

The platform will utilize a structured questionnaire to match travelers with women guides based on several factors, including skill level, interests, communication preferences, cultural orientation, and leadership style. This approach responds to a long-standing challenge in Nepal’s trekking industry: guides and clients often meet for the first time on the trail without prior knowledge of one another’s expectations or backgrounds. By facilitating informed matches, HWTL aims to enhance client satisfaction while also honoring the diverse skills, strengths, and identities of Nepali women guides.

The directory concept was strengthened through HWTL’s selection as a finalist and winner in the Social Entrepreneurship Competition in Tourism, a recognition that contributed to the refinement of its purpose, structure, and projected impact.

Guide Training and Capacity Building

Another central component of HWTL is the development of specialized training programs for female trekking guides. These programs aim to expand women’s opportunities beyond standard commercial routes by offering field-based training in less frequently traveled and more technically challenging regions of the Great Himalaya Trail, including:

• Kanchenjunga

• Dolpo

• Makalu

• Other remote areas of the Himalayas

These trainings will provide hands-on experience in navigation, route knowledge, risk assessment, and leadership development, enabling women to gain the competencies required to guide confidently on a wider range of Himalayan routes.