Sometimes the contrast between the real and painful effort made during the trek and the imaginative mental projection of finally crossing the highest pass, and the way we compensate in planning how to present this ´triumph´to others, makes one think that one purpose of trekking is to bleach out all pretence and vainglory, vanity and…
Category: Nepal Treks
Nepal trekking lists
Everest Region: to the Gokyo Lakes
Beginnings Exactly ten years ago, during the January school break in Nepal, when I was working in Kathmandu University High School, we planned to do the Everest Base Camp trek. I was intrigued to discover that the trails would be snow free, for the most part, and provided you could stand the cold, they would…
Khopra Ridge
Day 16 – Day 21: Tatopani to Nayapul We reached Tatopani by bus from Jomsom. This might have been the riskiest road I have travelled on, being beset by landslides and also being so narrow that the buses have to blast out warnings to oncoming traffic to permit a mutual passing place through consensual pauses….
Thorung La
Day 11: Shree Kharka to Yak Kharka All preliminaries cast aside, we must attempt the main challenge in the next three days, the high pass, the ancient trading route between Manang and Tibet, the Thorung La, standing at 5416m. The approach today is to the lodges at Yak Kharka. Verily this is Yak territory, and…
Tilicho Lake
Day 8: Manang to Shree Kharka The river is a diminished current now, meandering across a stony flood plain that the monsoon rains pulsing down relentlessly from above submerge in their annual flood. The next lodge at Shree Kharka is above 4000m, so the altitude is starting to bite. And in the distance further above…
Round Annapurna – Bhul Bhule to Manang – Days 1-7
Round Annapurna (Bhul Bhule to Manang – 7 days) Despite having lived in Nepal earlier for a total of almost four years, I had never done the famous Annapurna Circuit. So here goes! The pre-trip journey was a numbing drive on minibus from Kathmandu to Beshisahar, with the constant mental message to the driver ……