Upper Mustang Trek

As your flight gets closer to the Kathmandu Valley, you will see the Himalayas of Northern Nepal for the first time. Namely, you will get to see peas including Pabil, Ganesh Himal, Himalchuli, Langtang, Gang Chhenpo, Sisa Pangma, and Manaslu.

However, the peaks you see also depend on the direction your plane is coming from. For example, if your flight is entering Nepal from the east, you will get to the Everest range but not Mt. Everest itself.

And so, arriving in Kathmandu is a scenic trip in itself. You will get to see a number of peaks along with all the amazing valley that hosts the different trekking destinations of Nepal.

Once you get to the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, we will make sure that you are guided to your accommodation. We will send one of our reps to meet you there and take you to your hotel for the night.

After a long flight from home, we understand that it can get a little overwhelming, physically. So, we want you to take a day to fully recover and re-energize yourself. We don’t expect you to be in your hotel room all day long. The 2nd day of your Upper Mustang Trek can be spent strolling the streets of Kathmandu for a couple of hours, visiting eateries, and tasting the Newari delights that are the specials of Kathmandu.

All in all, we expect you to rest as much as needed, and go out on the streets for a refreshing walk if interested. If you are not interested in resting for a whole day, we can arrange a sightseeing tour of the Kathmandu Valley. This little tour will take 6 to 7 hours to complete so you will be out traveling for the whole day.

You won’t have to walk all day, we will take you out on a private vehicle. Visiting sites like Pashupatinath, Swayambhunath, Bouddhanath, Royal Durbar Palace, Patan Durbar Square, and others will make up our day. These sites are historically important and aesthetic to look at as well.

As the daylight comes to an end, we will start preparing for the trek. This includes our trek guide briefing you on the Upper Mustang Trek, making sure you are well-equipped for the trek, and most importantly being mentally prepared for the trek. Generally, people only focus on the physical preparation but you should also be mentally focused and driven.

On the 3rd day of the Upper Mustang Trek, you will travel to the most loved city of Nepal, Pokhara, in a deluxe tourist bus. The reason we chose a deluxe tourist bus is because of the fact that these buses are far more comfortable, and spacious, and provide a bunch of facilities.

Many of the tourist buses boast free WiFi and on-board toilets but that is just a marketing tactic, almost none of them have it. But what they do have is air conditioning, and comfy seats to fall asleep in. Kathmandu to Pokhara is a long bus ride so it’s expected that travelers sleep on the way there as there is not much to do in a bus.

If you are not among those who can sleep on a bus, the scenes from your window will keep you busy. The bus will pass through a plethora of small towns and hillside villages all the while following the Trishuli river. You will get to see interesting things on the way.

This bus ride can last from 6 to 7 hours but in case there are traffic jams, landslides (which are frequent in monsoon), and other factors that delay the trip, the total time taken can rise to more than 12 hours.

If you are not interested in a bus ride to Pokhara, you can take a flight instead but this will cost you extra as flight expenses are not a part of the Upper Mustang Trek package. A cheap flight to Pokhara will cost you around $100 while the express flights cost around $460. To be honest, the express flights are not worth the money, the best they can do is take you to Pokhara 5 minutes faster than the regular flights.

You will get to Pokhara in about 30 minutes via a flight compared to the 7-hour road trip. With this extra time on your hands, you can explore the beautiful city of Pokhara. We are sure you will enjoy every bit of your time in Pokhara.

Pokhara to Jomsom is more than just a short flight, it’s one of those flights that you will remember for a long time; might just be your favorite flight of all time. As you fly north from Pokhara, you will be greeted with a wide overhead view of the Himalayas of the Annapurna region. As we move further north, you will get to see the Upper Mustang region in its entirety. It’s a view you will remember.

After just 25 minutes, we will reach the bustling town of Jomsom, as you land at the airport in Jomsom, you will instantly feel the difference in temp and the whole vibe is vastly different. Pokhara seems like a utopia compared to the dry highlands but these highlands have a beauty of their own. You will feel the attractions of these arid remote regions as you trek through the villages, crossing rivers, and living among the locals.

Shortly after landing, we will begin our trek to Kagbeni. Starting off, we will reach a suspension bridge passing over the quaint Kali Gandaki River. Following the left bank of the river, we will get to Eklebhatti where we will have our lunch. While you wait for the lunch to the prepared, you can enjoy the views of Dhaulagiri.

You might experience fairly strong gusts of wind as you day trek in the Mustang region. It is one of the signature features of this region and there is no way to avoid it. The dry vegetation of this region makes it even worse as the gusts sweep along the dust. We recommend you get a mask, sunglasses, or hiking sunglasses.

After a while, we leave the river bank and slowly traverse a gentle uphill trail to reach the village of Kagbeni which borders the kingdom of Mustang. (Add about Kagbeni)

The trek for the day begins beside the vehicle track. The trail flows along the valley’s eastern edge, incorporating numerous smaller rivers that mix up with the Kali Gandaki. The walk is enjoyable, although there are a few difficult slopes to climb that are going to remind your body that you still have work to do for the remainder of the trek.

The Simkoghiu River crosses a tiny plateau that provides grand views over the entire valley. As we continue on the path, we pass by another village, Tangbe, which is accessible by a short descent and a moderate ascent. A huge apple farm is one of the village’s attractions.

We descend steadily as we exit the village of Tangbe and approach Chhusang. The Cave Monastery, located on the northeastern edge, is definitely worth a quick visit. The path continues up the eastern flank of the Kali Gandaki after passing through the river valley. A cliff rises in front of you as you get closer to Chele, and you can see the remnants of the river’s former path beneath the cliff where the walkway crosses it on a suspension bridge.

There are actually two ways to get to Chele after crossing the suspension bridge: a bit longer, a more leisurely ascent up the vehicle road, or the quicker, steeper ascent. Chele provides a stunning view of the valley you have been traveling through for the past two days.

Day 6 of the Upper Mustang Trek requires us to wake up a bit earlier than usual as we have a little more distance to cover compared to other days and the path today requires us to take frequent rests. Starting off, we will trek to the village of Samar, an authentic mountain village 2 hours away from Syangboche.

One feature characterizes most Upper Mustang settlements: a valley off to the opposite side that is probably the community’s water supply. The village of Samar is the same, and after we have eaten and relaxed, we will take a quick stroll through this charming village prior to exiting via a huge gate.

Before making the same ascent to the opposite side, we will walk a sharp downhill route to get across the valley. At that point, one can take any of the two routes to Syangboche. The jeep road circles around the different valleys that drop from the hills. The other route is via Ranchung’s cavern, where Guru Rimpoche is reputed to have meditated. We’re going to go with the latter.

We will have a brief flat stretch after traversing Samar’s valley before a challenging 300-meter ascent. A brief level stretch comes before a lengthy drop to the meeting point of two valleys. The cave is about 200 meters up from the main trail. The monastery has several naturally occurring caves that make it quite interesting.

The remaining portion of the day consists of a further 360 meters of climbing from the main rail to Syangboche. Even though the 360 meters are lengthy and a bit steep, the ascent isn’t particularly difficult, but it does put your physique to the test at the conclusion of a hard day.

After a swift ascent from our accommodation to the pass, we will have a magnificent, slow downhill walk with beautiful views of the east all the way back to the Kali Gandaki Gorge. The main trail passes through Ghiling, but a new path that goes higher and bypasses the drop has been made possible by an asphalt road.

We’ll follow the main trail, which goes via Jhaite and a few other little settlements. This is going to be the first time we go over 4000 meters (4020 meters), and it’s a particularly direct path up to the pass of Nyi La. With 200 meters of elevation gain in just about 550 meters of trail, this section will be a tough ascent.

The plus side of mountain passes in Nepal is the fact that there is usually a resting place at the summit with gorgeous views of the valley down below. From there, we will start the leisurely and enjoyable journey down to our ultimate destination, Ghami. The most remarkable Prayer Wall in Mustang, spanning over 250 meters, can be seen in Ghami.

Starting off the trek, we will come across the Ghami Hospital which is not in use during the wintertime since the temperature gets really low and everything becomes difficult to do. If you are wondering why the hospital does not have a heating system, it’s because it’s a third-world country and even the hospitals in cities do not have heating/cooling systems.

During the peak trekking season of spring, it can get a little snowy as the weather conditions are delaying year by year. The trekking trail can be full of snow in Ghami so be careful where you step and also avoid going through bushes covered in snow, some of them are spikey.

We will arrive in Tsarang early in the afternoon and have enough time to explore the village. The former Kings Palace can be seen sitting atop a hill; it is currently in shambles and houses a bunch of dogs. There is a trail that leaves the palace and leads to a cliffside location with a gorgeous view of the entire landscape.

As the sun sets, the cliffs will have incredible color. Similar to many viewpoints of Upper Mustang, you can just stand there and the changing hues of sunset will offer you a majestic experience.

We will begin the morning with a gentle descent, but this also implies that we are going to have to go through an ascending trail once more. Thus, we go down into the valley and then ascend back up to a comparable elevation on the opposite end. The caves that can be seen in Upper Mustang’s cliff faces were created by humans millenniums ago.

They are divided into several levels and are cut out of the giant cliff boulders. However, all of that will become more apparent to us in the coming days, so we do not have to visit these just as of yet. Continuing the journey, we will get to Lo Mathang with a couple of daylight hours on hand. Today’s trek should not take us more than 6 hours.

Thupchen Monastery, Chode Monastery, and Jampa Monastery are the three primary monasteries of Lo Manthang. Thupchen is constructed with a huge window facing the Royal Palace, allowing the queen to greet the Buddha’s statue every morning without having to leave the palace. The monks used to go to the basement for morning prayer so as not to block the Queen’s view.

Recently restored, Chode monastery features artwork from the fifteenth century on its walls. It’s very gloomy inside the monastery making it hard for visitors to see the paintings in full glory. During the off-season, there aren’t many monks; however, during the busiest times of the year, there may be as many as forty.

But before all that, we will actually travel to Chooser. At nine in the morning, we have breakfast as planned and head to Chooser Village. Since today’s walk is essentially an acclimatization hike, it will be a little more straightforward and shorter. We’ll visit the Jhong Cave once we get to Chooser.

This cave requires tickets which is covered by the Upper Mustang Trek package. We will have lunch at a nearby tea shop after exploring the cave and then head back towards Lomanthang across the river. The trip returning to Lomanthang from Chooser takes roughly 1.5 hours.

At eight in the morning, we depart the walled city of Lo Manthang with a sense of accomplishment. The new journey begins with an ascent along a ridge trail that crosses a high valley and is comparatively easy. A wide open space beneath a clear, deep blue sky welcomes us to the trek that lies ahead. A path to the east is offered by the ridges of hills that stretch between two impressive rock walls, giving the rock cliffs and bright blue sky a charming appearance.

Firstly, we make our way to the village of Dhee where we will stop for lunch. It’s a small village full of typical Upper Mustang houses made of clays and having the same color.

We shorty start our ascent to Yaragaon, which is not as steep as the descent to Dhee. Although the track is not so apparent, it is nevertheless very clear to continue following. As we ascend the ridge, we get our first look at the hills and black stone.

There are other caves lining a cliff atop the black slopes, with the only thing visible below being the brown trees that perfectly complement the rock. There’s an undeniable earthiness to Yaragaon, everything looks brown. It appeared as though the earth tones were an inseparable part of the village.

Today’s trek starts with an uphill climb right away. We will travel over the level plateau for a pleasant few kilometers following a 250-meter climb. As we traverse the plateau, there will be a slippery drop-off to the riverbed several hundred meters down. While part of it can be done standing upright, others call for both feet and hands, which won’t feel steady at all, but it is doable.

Next, we’ll pass the river by the suspension bridge, which will lead us to a brief stretch of a slippery narrow route. After taking a brief break at a lodge situated beside the riverbed, we will start our 500-meter climb back to the plateau’s summit.

As we reach the top of the plateau, we have to descend to another plateau, followed by a gentle trail that takes us to Tangge.

Today, we will climb up to the pass of Paa (4183 meters). Fantastic views of the opposite part of the valley, where we had hiked a few days earlier on our way to Lo Manthang, are visible from the pass.

The roads carving their way up the valley mess with the natural vibe of the scene but without those roads, many things would be inaccessible. We must also let you know that there are no tea houses on today’s trail and you are not likely to see any other group of trekkers on the way. We will have to pack our lunch for the day and eat it at a suitable scenic spot en route.

The whole route today covers 24 kilometers and the last 4 kilometers is when we will descend to Chhusang. It will take us about 7.5 hours to reach the village of Chhusang.

Making our way back to Jomsom, we’ll first go down the same route from Kagbeni to Chhusang. It will take us about 4 hours to reach Kagbeni form where an additional 3 to 4 hours is required to reach the town of Jomsom. The path today will be dusty like it was when you first ascended. It will take us about 7 hours to reach our destination.

The Jomsom to Pokhara flight is once again a relaxing part of the trek. As you leave the region of Mustang, you will look back at the valley you trekked, remembering all the beautiful memories you made along the way.

The next day, you will get on a tourist bus to Kathmandu re-experiencing the scenes you saw on the 3rd day of the Upper Mustang Trek. You can opt for a flight instead of a long bus ride is not the thing you want after almost two weeks in the highlands of Nepal.

This day is reserved in case your Upper Mustang Trek is delayed by a day due to some unforeseen situations. If everything goes just as we intended, this day will not be necessary.

Following such an adventure in the highlands of Mustang, it’s normal to feel like not wanting to leave but you can be back another time as well. That’s the beauty, there is always another time, another trek.