Upper Mustang Trek

Met at Tribhuvan International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Evening welcome dinner and briefing. Upper Mustang is a restricted area, so we confirm your permit paperwork tonight: the Restricted Area Permit requires a licensed guide and a minimum of two trekkers.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

Guided sightseeing at Boudhanath, Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath. In the afternoon we collect the Upper Mustang Restricted Area Permit and the ACAP permit, and check gear. Wind protection matters more than warmth on this trek: a buff, sunglasses and lip balm are as important as a down jacket.

Walking: 3 to 4 hours of sightseeing.

A drive west along the Prithvi Highway following the Trishuli river to Pokhara, or a 25-minute flight if you prefer. Afternoon free on Lakeside, with an early night before tomorrow's dawn flight.

Drive: 6 to 7 hours, or a 25-minute flight.

An early flight through the Kali Gandaki gorge between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, twenty minutes and one of the most dramatic short flights anywhere. Flights only operate in the morning before the valley wind rises.

From Jomsom a two to three hour walk up the wide, windy riverbed to Kagbeni, a medieval village of tunnelled alleys, a red gompa and a ruined fort, sitting at the gateway to the restricted zone. Your permit is checked at the police post here.

Distance: 10 km. Walking: 2 to 3 hours. Altitude gain: 90 m.

Into Upper Mustang proper. The trail follows the Kali Gandaki north through the eroded landscape that defines the region: cliffs banded in red, grey and ochre, cave openings high in the rock faces, and villages of whitewashed houses in irrigated green pockets.

Through Tangbe with its buckwheat fields, and Chhusang, then a steep climb to Chele on the east bank.

Distance: 14 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 240 m.

The hardest walking day of the trek, crossing three passes: Taklam La at 3,624 m, Dajori La at 3,735 m and Bhena La. Between them the trail passes the spectacular gorge crossing at Samar and a side path to the Chungsi cave monastery, a shrine built into a natural cavern where Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated.

Dhaulagiri, Nilgiri and Tilicho Peak are behind you for most of the day.

Distance: 14 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude gain: 425 m over three passes.

Over the Yamda La and then the Nyi La at around 4,010 m, the highest point of the trek. The landscape here is at its most lunar: bare, wind-carved and almost entirely without vegetation.

The descent leads to Ghami, one of the largest villages in Upper Mustang, a walled cluster of whitewashed houses in a green oasis beneath spectacular red cliffs.

Distance: 12 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 45 m net, over a 4,010 m pass.

Across a suspension bridge and along the longest mani wall in Mustang, several hundred metres of stone tablets carved with prayers, then over the Tsarang La at 3,870 m.

Tsarang was the capital of Lo before Lo Manthang. The five-storey white dzong and the red gompa beside it sit on the edge of a canyon, and the monastery holds an important collection of thangkas and manuscripts.

Distance: 11 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Altitude gain: 40 m net.

A short day with a memorable arrival. The trail crosses a plateau and climbs to the Lo La at 3,950 m, and from the top the walled city of Lo Manthang appears below on the plain, unchanged in outline since the 15th century.

Lo Manthang is a compact walled town of around 150 houses, closed to foreigners until 1992 and still governed in practice by its own traditions. The afternoon is free to walk the lanes inside the walls.

Distance: 11 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Altitude gain: 280 m.

A full day in the former capital. We visit the four-storey royal palace and the three principal monasteries: Jampa Lhakhang, with its enormous Maitreya Buddha and mandala murals; Thubchen, a vast 15th-century assembly hall; and Chode. The wall paintings here are among the most important surviving examples of Tibetan Buddhist art anywhere, and their restoration has been an international project for two decades.

In the afternoon there is an optional excursion north by horse or jeep to the cave complex at Chhoser, where a five-storey cave dwelling with more than forty rooms is cut into a cliff face, and to within sight of the Chinese border at Korala.

If your dates fall in May, the three-day Tiji festival of masked dances takes place here.

The return by a different route, west of the outward trail. The path climbs over the Chogo La at around 4,230 m, the highest point of the trek, then descends past Ghar Gompa, said to predate Samye in Tibet and to be the oldest monastery in Nepal, with unusual painted rock carvings.

Drakmar sits beneath dramatic red cliffs, whose colour local legend attributes to the blood of a demon slain by Guru Rinpoche.

Distance: 17 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude: up to 4,230 m, then down.

A shorter day back over the Nyi La and down through the barley fields to Ghiling, a village of about thirty houses with a small gompa. The walking is mostly familiar ground from the outward journey but seen from the opposite direction, which changes it more than you would expect.

Distance: 13 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

A long descent back down the Kali Gandaki through Samar and the gorge sections, retracing the route to Chhusang. The wind is behind you today, which after a week of walking into it is a considerable relief.

Distance: 18 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude loss: 756 m.

The last walking day, down the wide riverbed through Kagbeni, where you exit the restricted area, and along the valley floor to Jomsom. The wind on this stretch is famous and blows hard from late morning, so we start early.

Jomsom has hot showers, apple brandy from nearby Marpha, and a celebratory crew dinner.

Distance: 17 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude loss: 350 m.

An early morning flight back through the gorge to Pokhara, twenty minutes with Dhaulagiri and Annapurna on either side. If cloud grounds the flight we drive, which takes most of the day, so a spare day in the schedule is always wise.

Afternoon free on Lakeside.

Flight: 20 minutes.

The drive back east along the Prithvi Highway, or a 25-minute flight if you prefer. Afternoon free in Thamel and a farewell dinner with the team in the evening.

Drive: 6 to 7 hours, or a 25-minute flight.

Transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before your flight, or onward arrangements if you are extending your stay in Nepal, Bhutan or Tibet.