29/06/2025

ON SUNDAY JUNE 29, 2025 II theSunday Special

After completing the Great Himalayan Trail at 55, Margaret Chew isn’t done climbing. Now training for Everest, she hopes her story inspires others to rise with the years, not retreat from them When the second act is steeper

BY SIMON VELLA

S OMEWHERE between 5,000m passes, freezing winds and 80 days without modern comforts, Margaret Chew made a quiet decision – she was not done yet. “When I turned 50 in 2019, I knew I KDG WR GR VRPHWKLQJ GL̆ HUHQW ZLWK WKH second half of my life,” she told theSunday Special ¿YH PRQWKV DIWHU UHWXUQLQJ IURP Nepal. That ‘something’ turned out to be the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT), one of the most challenging trekking routes in the world, which she completed in December last year. “I had just started trekking back then. , ZDV H[FLWHG EXW QDwYH , JDYH P\VHOI ¿YH years to be ready for it. And when I turned 55, there was no turning back,” she added. N RW FRQWHQW ZLWK WKH VWDQGDUG YHUVLRQ Chew chose the High Route of the GHT, D GHPDQGLQJ SDWK WKDW LQFOXGHV ¿YH RI Nepal’s most technical passes. With no formal mountaineering training and only indoor rock climbing experience, she relied on her Sherpa guide to teach her HYHU\WKLQJ RQ WKH JURXQG

“I was learning as I went along. I picked up a few things in real-time, thanks to P\ JXLGH ,W ZDV D VWHHS OHDUQLQJ FXUYH ´ she said. Not just a trek O YHU WKH FRXUVH RI QHDUO\ WKUHH PRQWKV Chew walked through some of the most remote and dramatic landscapes on earth. “ 7KHUH ZHUH GD\V , WKRXJKW P\ ¿QJHUV would freeze. Crossing three passes back to-back was brutal. But I kept reminding myself how far I’d come – not just in the trek, but in life.” “Once I set my mind to something, I will see it through,” she admits to being tenacious. W KDW VXUSULVHG KHU PRVW KRZHYHU wasn’t the terrain – it was the people. “ 7KH NLQGQHVV IURP YLOODJHUV DORQJ WKH way, strangers who opened their homes WR XV ZKR R̆ HUHG XV WHD IRRG DQG HYHQ D bed without expecting anything in return. That stayed with me more than any sum mit photos,” those moments, she said, grounded her.

Pausing for breath … above a frozen alpine lake during the Great Himalayan Trail