Key Information
Book this Nepal trek and get a complimentary one hour Trekker’s’ massage after the trek is over. The masseuses will be from a marginalized community. This is part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Dolpo, with its authentic Tibetan culture, was a forbidden land until 1996. It has remained unchanged for the past 1,200 years or more. It is a land of high passes with high arid plateaus and deep canyons, which is a considerable contrast to the fertile lower valleys south of the impressive Kanjiroba (locals pronounce it Kanjirolwa) Tibetan, it translates to the ‘big mountain with a ponytail’) and Dhaulagiri massifs.
We have ‘broken’ a couple of rest days and continue shorter days to lessen the strenuous days. You will be camping away from villagers in the “wild” in nature under the five million-star hotel.
Dolpo is part of the Great Himalaya Trail (GHT), and it snakes between two natural borders of the two regions of Dolpo and Mustang. It is one of the last remaining places where they practice the ancient Bon religion, which predates Tantric Buddhism. Bon religion is almost extinct in Tibet while it is still practised in its pristine purity.
We will spend two nights at the magnificent Phoksundo Lake before heading to the windswept passes into Panzang (Bantshang) valley. We will pass through semi-nomadic settlements meeting friendly nomads and curious villagers frequently.
There are sections on this trek where the trail is rugged or ill-defined. Some campgrounds have limited campsites. Adverse weather, snow, trail conditions, or water levels in the rivers might make it necessary for us to change the itinerary. Your trek leader will advise should any changes be needed to be made.
All trekkers should be open-minded and flexible on a trek of this calibre. As usual, don’t forget to pack your sense of humour.
We are pioneers in gastronome trekking in the Himalayas. We provide a varied, exciting menu on treks throughout the Himalayas. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free meals can be catered for upon request, and other special diets can be accommodated with advance notice.
Trekking is not only fun, but it is beneficial for you. It helps in detoxifying the body while also nourishing the soul. Although to provide a better experience, we also tailor our meals to include superfoods as part of the ingredients to keep you fit and healthy while also assisting in acclimatization to high altitudes. The combination of hiking in the pristine mountain air and healthy food makes trekking with us a complete culinary adventure. Read More on Food and nutrition on our treks.
Arrival day in Kathmandu. You will be met by our representative and brought to your hotel. You will meet the rest of the group during your trek briefing.
You will have a morning walking tour of Swayambhunath, Kathmandu Durbar Square, and the Ason spice market. We fly from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj in the afternoon.
The flights to Juphal are usually in the morning. The flight can be delayed by bad weather as the primary trekking season for Upper Dolpo is before and during the summer monsoon. The southwestern monsoon may be in the lower parts of Nepal. However, Dolpo is in the Trans Himalaya in the rain shadow.
It is a short flight to Juphal. We will meet our team at Juphal, and they will be busy organizing/loading our kit bags, camping gear, equipment, and food onto pack animals.
We start trekking along the Thulo Bheri River. It turns northward to the Suligad River an hour into the hike. We have to register with the Shey Phoksundo National park, the largest in Nepal, at their entrance. We continue to Kageni for the night.
Our support crew will set up the campsite, make us hot drinks, and serve it in the dining tent with cookies.
This morning we walk in a northwesterly direction going upstream of the Suligad river, which comes from Phoksundo Lake. The hike is in the beautiful forested area passing through Shyanta and Chepka until our final stop at Rechi. Our support team will prepare and serve us lunch on the way.
As we go to the Turquoise Phoksundo Lake, this is an exciting day. The hike at the beginning is undulating, passing through Samduwa, and a short distance away, we will arrive at Trapiza School. The Swiss and Americans funded this school. We continue with a gentle climb until we reach Palam. After that, the ascent gets steep until you go to a place to rest. Next, you will see the raging Suligad waterfall that drops 167 meters. We will also get the first glimpse of the massive Kanjiroba 6612-meter peak. Kanjirolwa means the big mountain with a ponytail in Tibetan. We will also see part of the Turquoise Phoksundo Lake. We will reach the main village of Ringmo and Phoksundo Lake an hour later.
We will take an easy walk to the ancient Bon monastery, Thasung Tsoling Gompa. The whole of Ringmo village are parishioners of the ancient Bon religion that predates Tibetan Buddhism.
We start our morning after breakfast by walking on the Lake’s Western trail, which starts going uphill. Every step and corner showcases the absolute beauty of the Lake. We will reach the highest point of the path at above 4000 meters from where the trail started contouring on a downhill trend bringing us to pine and Rhododendron forest until we reach the lakeside to the North of Ringmo village. A couple of Herder’s tents also double as restaurants, shops, and even lodging for travellers during the summer. Our camp is just a short hour away from the north side of the Lake.
We trek upstream of the Phoksundo river towards our first pass in the pine forest towards the lower base camp. We turn to our right to the Tuk Kyasa River. It involved rough trails and crossed the river by stepping and leaping on rocks. The valley widened after 30 minutes, and we reached the intermediate campsite about 2 hours and 30 minutes later. It was just enough for our four sleeping tents, kitchen, dining, and toilet tent. It was a lovely spot with a stream close by for our kitchen staff to cook.
This is a big day that involves crossing the first of the six passes above 5000 meters. Kang La is also known as Nagdalo La at 5350 meters. We ascend for an hour before reaching the high camp. We continue to climb on a steady ascent mixture of some short steep climbs for 90 minutes before the trail becomes steep. We continued this steep and challenging climb for more than two hours before reaching Kang La’s top. It can be windy and cold at the top of the pass. We might see the Manaslu range to the southeast of the key and the stark but beautiful hills that define Dolpo to the north. The first 20 minutes were a narrow, steep drop before the trail started contouring in a downward trend for 90 minutes, where we stopped for a break in a beautiful open space with a stream next to it. We stop before Shey Gompa.
We continue descending to Shey Gompa. We get there within a couple of hours after leaving our campsite. We have a short uphill hike from the river, bringing us to a beautifully maintained camp. An elderly couple does a superb job managing the campsite and monastery as caretakers.
On the opposite side of Shey Monastery is Crystal Mountain, which broods above everything else. It is the holiest mountain in Dolpo and is considered the next holy mountain after Mount Kailash in Tibet.
We continue to Namgung today. First, we have to go over another pass Sela at 5094 meters. It is a relatively easy pass, and the scenery is stunning, making your hike pleasant. You might see four well-placed Monasteries and retreats that were almost impossible to notice unless you look hard for them as you are coming down the pass. Namgung consists of 5 houses and monasteries.
We start the morning with a short climb until the plateau is reached. After that, the trail is undulating, and we contour the hills until we descend to Saldang, the most significant village on this trek. We will see several neighbouring towns and many paths in the distance from the pass.
Rest day at Saldang. You have two options for this day:
i) You can take an entire hike to Yangjer Monastery with a packed lunch and return in the late afternoon.
ii) You can use the morning to wander around the village and visit the 500-year-old Samye Choling Monastery in the lower part of Saldang Village. Then, come back for lunch, and the boys will heat water for you to take showers in our shower tent.
The trek to Khomas starts with a descent to the river and a steady climb to Khoma, passing at 4460 meters. We will see Khomas village from the past. We can take it easy and enjoy the scenery, warm sun, and the lack of wind while waiting for the mules and our staff to catch up. We started hiking down after a relaxing 45-minute rest, stopped by a grassy pasture for lunch, and continued down after that to the village. Khomas village is in an open valley, a relatively large settlement.
We start the day’s hike with an hour of traverse followed by a drop to the river before the trail goes uphill to Shimen la’s top at 4260 meters. The path continues undulating for 45 minutes before coming to the end of the pass, and we can see Shimen village. You can see an old airstrip when flights used to take place from Nepalgunj directly to Shimen in the 60s and 70s. The distance is quite deceiving as it is the altitude; the thin air makes things appear closer than they are. This is the lowest village since you left the Phoksundo camp, and we could feel the heat. We are now in the Panzang (Ban Tshang by locals) river valley.
The valley is broader, with more rolling hills compared to the sharp ridges and deep valleys before this. We will pass through several Chortens, interesting rock carvings on the rocks by the river.
Interestingly the Nepal government sends rations through Tibet to the border. So the villagers go to the border, buy the subsidized ration, pack them on their animals, and bring them home. This keeps the cost of transportation lower than transporting within Nepal. We camp next to a stream beyond the village of Tinje, another beautiful spot two hours after leaving Tinje on the fork in the trail.
We leave our wilderness campsite greeted by numerous Marmots whistling to let the others know of our presence. Then, we take a left on the fork and continue for several hours. You will have a packed lunch, allowing you to stop at a suitable time and place to take a break and have your meal.
The trail is a gentle and gradual climb, to begin with. We might have to take our boots off to cross a river. We probably could have skipped on the rocks, but I believe in prevention rather than cure. We get into two different valleys before starting our ascent toward the high camp of Mo La, our third trek pass. We would have been heading East for the past few days by now. Our campsite is at 4880 meters.
The hike to Mo La 5030 is relatively comfortable, and the final climb isn’t that difficult. It takes about an hour to reach the top of the pass. You will get the views of Dhaulagiri’s north face as you descend from Mo La pass. This is the highest mountain on this trek. The hike down to Charka is very scenic but deceptively longer than it seems. Charka derives from Tibetan (Chaa Ka – good salt). There is a source of salt on the outskirts of the village, and a stream flows through it. All animals go there to get their salt fixed. Our staff will restock on dry ration, kerosene, some fresh vegetables, etcetera for the next three days: you will be camping in the middle of nowhere away from the villages.
We cross the Charka Tulsi River and walk on a very new and broad trail for about an hour before going to the bridge to cross the river, followed by a short but strenuous climb on a dusty path. Once we are on the top, the terrain appears lovely and green suitable for a golf course. The trail continues on a gentle slope for another 90 minutes. Soon after this, the trail goes through landslip areas where the path is narrow and rocky. We reach our campsite an hour after our lunch spot. This was once again a wide-open valley with a vast flat ground for camping with two relatively large clean streams.
We have broken a long day into two easier days to make it less strenuous and give you time to acclimatize to the high altitude. It is an easy hike of about 4 hours to our camp at Nulungsumda Kharka at 4987 meters. It started getting cloudy from this onwards. Westerly winds blew clouds to the East. The pony men and local guide began voicing their concern about the weather changing, and rightly so. Every few years, cyclones from the Bay of Bengal, bring unseasonal snow to the high passes, and some people, including trekkers and locals, die. I reassured them that the bad weather usually comes from the EastEast, and these clouds travelled West.
This “huge” day involves crossing over three passes, namely Niwas La 5125 meters, Jungben La 5550 meters, and a nameless pass at 5400 meters. It starts with a flattish terrain with a slight climb to Niwas La. We get views of The Sadache Himal range. The trail continues flattish until the last 60 minutes to the top of Jungben la 5550 meters. We will get there with relative ease. The downhill is winding and steep for some time before it eases with a small climb to the last pass. The descent from here is on a trail with loose shales, screes, rocks, and relentless steep for what seems like forever.
We begin with a small climb and a steep descent to Kyalungpa Khola (River). We walk past Juniper trees along a dusty path, and the active Mustang wind can worsen it. It is quite a steep drop down on some exposed and slippery trails until we get to the bridge. After that, we had a short climb of about 30 minutes before the trail levelled out until we got to a small pass. After that, we have to go down to a river before a short climb for about an hour before reaching Santa (Shang Tak).
We begin the day with a steep uphill climb to 4110 meters and hike on a newly constructed road—the road contours to the top of Bhimen La 4600 meters. The pass’ top’s views are breathtaking; Upper Mustang to the North, Peaks of Nar Phu valley to the North East, Thorung peak and access to the East, Muktinath, Jharkot, Kagbeni beneath the Thorung pass, Nilgiri peaks to the South East and the Kali Gandaki riverbed. It can be a very windy and dusty trek to Phalyak village.
We hike to the main road after crossing a very long suspension bridge over the Kali Gandaki River. Then, we have a flattish hike to Jomsom after crossing the bridge near Ekle Bhatti.
We have an extra night if the flight from Jomsom is affected by bad weather. If the flights are cancelled, we will hire a jeep and drive to Pokhara.
We have the morning free in Pokhara to relax or go for a massage after this long trek. We fly to Kathmandu in the afternoon.
You will be brought to the airport three hours before your international flight.
Despite the exceptional circumstances in which we find ourselves at the moment, we don’t want you to give up your holiday – and we want you to be able to book your trip without any worries.
To provide additional security for your booking, we have introduced a new rebooking and cancellation policy so that you can easily rebook or cancel your trip free of charge if the worst comes to the worst.
For new bookings made between May 10th 2021, and December 31st 2022, you may cancel your complete package (activities, hotels, tours, excl. flight) free of charge up to 30 days before your departure and get 100% of your money back. However, to stay flexible, we recommend that you choose a flexible fare when booking your flight.
Stay flexible with our new rebooking service until shortly before your departure. For new bookings made between May 10th and December 31st, 2021, you may rebook your package (activities, hotels, tours) free of charge up to 30 days before your departure (subject to availability). Rebooking is only allowed once, and you must inform us 30 days before your planned departure. Any additional costs incurred due to changes in your schedule or upgrades, such as additional fees in high season or upgrades to your accommodation, will still apply. To remain flexible, we recommend that you choose a flexible fare when booking your flight.
Most of our clients have completed their treks from 3 years old to some in their 70s with almost no exercise or training.
Do you offer hotel/airport pick-up?
We offer hotel and airport pick-up. As you continue with your booking, there will be an option to input flight details or hotel names.
Do I need a Visa?
A visa for Nepal can be acquired on arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, and at border entry points in Kakadvitta, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj, Gaddachowki on the Nepal-India border, and Kerung on the Nepal-China border.
Outside of Nepal, A visa can also be obtained at the nearest Nepal Embassy or Diplomatic Mission.
For more information, go to the Department of Immigration, Kalikasthan, Kathmandu.
What should I bring on a Trek?
Being adequately equipped is one of the keys to a successful trek. For information to help you select the best type of clothing and equipment for your trip, please see our Clothing and Equipment Guide.
Also, see our Links page for details of specialist retailers who will offer further advice and assistance with purchasing new clothing or equipment.
If you have more questions, please check this article to reference equipment to pack or contact us.
Is this trip safe for solo/female/LGBT+/minority/POC travelers?
You are safe as long as you respect the culture, do not show affection in public, and dress decently (this won’t pose too much problem as you will be covered up in layers to stay warm).
Here are some helpful articles:
Am I too old to go trekking?
Arriving at Kathmandu airport.
Should I bring cash or ATM cards?
What to pack for a trek?
Do I need to train for a trek?
What are the differences between camping and lodge trekking?
What is a typical day on a trek like?
What is the food like on the trek?
The Benefits of using trekking poles.
What do I need to know about high altitudes?
High altitude myths.
How to trek safely?
For more articles, you can go to our blogs.