Upper Dolpo to Jomsom Trek

Airport transfer and an evening briefing with a full kit check for a four-week camping expedition.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

Permit processing with your original passport, and time to hire or buy whatever is missing. This trip needs two restricted area permits and an ACAP permit for the Jomsom end.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

Flight to the Terai, overnight near the airport, final repack for the weight limit.

Altitude: 150 m. Flight: about 1 hour.

The small aircraft into the Bheri gorge, then down to the river and up to Dunai.

Altitude: 2,140 m. Walking: 2 to 3 hours.

Up the Suli Gad past the park checkpost, climbing gently into the gorge.

Altitude: 2,670 m. Distance: 14 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

Steeper ground beside the river, past the waterfall, birch replacing pine.

Altitude: 3,110 m. Distance: 13 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

The spur to the 3,780 m ridge and the first sight of the lake, then down into Ringmo.

Altitude: 3,640 m. Walking: 4 to 5 hours.

Climb a few hundred metres above the lake and sleep low. The Bon monastery at the far shore is worth the afternoon.

Altitude: 3,640 m. Walking: 3 to 4 hours.

The cliff trail along the western shore, exposed in places, then the flats at the head of the lake.

Altitude: 3,750 m. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

A long climb of more than 1,000 m up a side valley to a cold camp below Kang La.

Altitude: 4,810 m. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

Kang La at 5,360 m on scree, then a steep drop into the Shey valley with the Crystal Mountain ahead and the red walls of the gompa below.

Altitude: 4,343 m. Pass: Kang La, 5,360 m. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

A day at Shey for the kora around Crystal Mountain and the monastery itself.

Altitude: 4,343 m. Walking: 4 to 6 hours.

Over Shey La at 5,095 m on a bare, wind-scoured crossing, then down to Namgung and its cliff-built gompa.

Altitude: 4,360 m. Pass: Shey La, 5,095 m. Walking: 7 to 8 hours.

A descending day down the valley, losing nearly 700 m, with the trail passing scattered summer pastures.

Altitude: 3,692 m. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

Back uphill, past Yangjer Gompa, to the small settlement of Musi.

Altitude: 4,218 m. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

Musi La at 5,057 m, the third pass of the trip, then down to a camp on open grazing ground.

Altitude: 4,180 m. Pass: Musi La, 5,057 m. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

A long day east through Shimen to Tinje, a village in a broad valley close to the Tibetan border and one of the remotest settlements on the route.

Altitude: 4,268 m. Walking: 7 to 8 hours.

Climbing again, following the Panzang river system into higher and emptier country.

Altitude: 4,494 m. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

Mola at 5,070 m, then a descent to Chharka Bhot, a walled Tibetan village that is among the highest permanently occupied settlements anywhere.

Altitude: 4,323 m. Pass: Mola, 5,070 m. Walking: 7 to 8 hours.

A day in the village before the hardest section of the trip. This is also the contingency day if weather has cost us one earlier.

Altitude: 4,323 m.

A sustained climb to a high camp at nearly 5,000 m on open ground with no shelter. Cold and exposed.

Altitude: 4,990 m. Walking: 7 to 8 hours.

The biggest day of the trek. Niwar La at 5,120 m first, then Sangda La at 5,550 m, the highest point of the trip, and a long descent to camp by the river.

Two 5,000 m passes in one day at the end of three weeks is hard, and there is no way to split it: there is no water and no shelter in between.

Altitude: 4,241 m. Passes: Niwar La 5,120 m and Sangda La 5,550 m. Walking: 8 to 9 hours.

Down the valley to Sangda, the first village since Chharka Bhot, where you are already feeling the pull of the Kali Gandaki.

Altitude: 3,779 m. Walking: 4 to 5 hours.

A last pass at 4,462 m, then a long drop towards the Kali Gandaki with Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri filling the view ahead.

Altitude: 3,141 m. Pass: Bhima Lojun La, 4,462 m. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

Down into the Kali Gandaki and along to Jomsom. After three weeks of camping, a lodge with a hot shower and a bakery is a strange and welcome thing.

Altitude: 2,720 m. Walking: 3 to 4 hours.

A short early flight down the Kali Gandaki between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, one of the more dramatic twenty minutes in Nepali aviation, then an afternoon by the lake in Pokhara.

Altitude: 820 m. Flight: about 20 minutes.

Fly or drive back to Kathmandu. This day also serves as a buffer if the Jomsom flight is delayed by wind, which it often is after mid-morning.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

Transfer to the airport for your flight home.

Altitude: 1,400 m.