Churen Himal Base Camp Trek

Welcome to Nepal. You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Your guide joins you for the briefing: the sixteen-day plan, twelve nights of camping, the equipment we supply, and the practical reality that nothing can be bought between Darbang and Dhorpatan. We go through your kit item by item, with particular attention to your sleeping bag and boots.

Anything missing can be bought or hired in Thamel this afternoon. The rest of the day is yours. Overnight in Kathmandu.

After breakfast we leave the Kathmandu valley on the Prithvi Highway, following the Trishuli river west through gorge country with terraced hillsides above and whitewater below.

The drive to Pokhara (822 m) covers roughly 200 km and takes most of the day with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant. The 25-minute flight is available as an add-on.

Pokhara arrives in the late afternoon on the shore of Phewa Lake, with the Annapurna massif behind it and Machhapuchhre unmistakable from the lakeside.

The crew makes the final load sort here, and this is the last comfortable evening before the tents. Overnight in Pokhara.

An early start west through Beni, the district town at the confluence of the Kali Gandaki and the Myagdi Khola, and on up a rough hill road to the roadhead at Darbang (1,110 m).

Four to five hours in the vehicle, the last part slow and bumpy. The porters load at the roadhead and the walking begins immediately.

The trail crosses the Myagdi Khola and climbs gently through terraced fields of millet and maize, past Magar villages with slate roofs and buffalo tethered under the eaves. This is working farmland rather than trekking country.

Dharapani (1,560 m) is a village strung along the hillside above the river. Around 3 hours of walking. Overnight camping at Dharapani.

A steady day through the middle hills, with more up and down than the small net gain suggests.

The trail contours above the Myagdi Khola through Sibang and Phalai Gaon, dropping to cross side streams on suspension bridges and climbing back onto the shoulder each time. The forest is subtropical low down and pine higher up.

The villages here are Magar, one of the hill communities that farmed this valley long before anyone trekked through it, and the fields are worked entirely by hand.

Muri (1,850 m) is a substantial village of stone houses on a shelf, with a school and a couple of shops. From the fields above it the north view opens on the Dhaulagiri outliers.

Around 6 hours. Overnight camping at Muri.

West towards the pass, leaving the Myagdi valley behind.

The trail turns away from the river and climbs south-west through farmland and into forest, following a route that connects the Myagdi and Dhorpatan valleys and has done for a very long time. Traders, herders and porters use it; trekkers essentially do not.

The forest here is oak with rhododendron above, and in April and May the flowering runs for hours of walking.

Lumsum (2,240 m) is a small settlement on the hillside with room for the camp and a view back east over the Myagdi.

Around 5–6 hours. Overnight camping at Lumsum.

The first pass of the trek, and the doorway into Dhorpatan.

The climb from Lumsum is long and steady through rhododendron and then fir forest, coming out above the treeline on open grass. The Jaljala pass (3,414 m) is a broad grassy saddle rather than a rocky col, marked with cairns and prayer flags.

The view from the top is the reward: Dhaulagiri (8,167 m), Churen Himal (7,371 m) and Gurja Himal (7,193 m) lined up along the northern skyline, with the Dhorpatan grasslands opening west below.

The descent is gentle onto pasture used through the summer by herders from both valleys.

Chentung (3,000 m) is a grazing camp with water. Around 7 hours. Overnight camping at Chentung.

An easy day across the grasslands into the reserve settlement.

The trail descends gently west along a broad, flat-bottomed valley — unusual country for Nepal, more like a Tibetan plain than a Himalayan gorge — with pine forest on the slopes and grazing stock on the floor.

Dhorpatan (2,900 m) is a scattered settlement in the middle of it, with a small Tibetan refugee community established in the 1960s, a few shops, an airstrip that is rarely used, and the headquarters of the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve.

The reserve is the only one of its kind in Nepal, and the permits are checked here. It is also the last place on the route where any supplies can be bought.

Around 4–5 hours. Overnight camping at Dhorpatan.

North out of the grasslands and into the valleys below the peaks.

The trail leaves Dhorpatan and turns north, following the Uttar Ganga upstream through pine and birch forest with the valley narrowing steadily. The path is a herders' route and is rough in places.

This is genuinely empty country. There is no settlement north of Dhorpatan, and the traffic is limited to herders in summer and the occasional reserve staff patrol.

Blue sheep are common on the slopes above the trail through this section, and because they are protected they are much less shy than elsewhere.

Gurjaghat (3,200 m) is a camp beside the river with flat ground and good water. Around 6 hours. Overnight camping at Gurjaghat.

The big day: 1,300 m of climbing onto the moraine below the mountain.

The trail follows the valley north, leaving the trees behind at around 3,700 m and climbing through alpine scrub and then open moraine. There is no path in the ordinary sense for the last section — your guide picks a line and the group moves together.

The peaks come into view one at a time and then all at once. Churen Himal (7,371 m) rises almost three kilometres above the camp, with Gurja Himal (7,193 m) east and Putha Hiunchuli (7,246 m) north — three 7,000 m mountains in a single view, none of them familiar to most trekkers.

Churen Himal Base Camp (4,500 m) is a flat area of moraine with meltwater nearby. It is cold as soon as the sun leaves the valley.

Around 7 hours. Overnight camping at Churen Himal Base Camp.

A full day at the base camp, which is what the eight days of walking were for.

The morning walk climbs the moraine ridge west of camp towards 4,800 m, for the fuller view along the western Dhaulagiri wall and down the glacier system that feeds the valley. Three to four hours at an easy pace.

Blue sheep are usually visible on the slopes from camp, sometimes in herds of thirty or more, and the tracks of the snow leopard that follow them are a common find on the moraine. Himalayan griffon work the thermals above the valley through the middle of the day.

The afternoon is rest. There is a particular stillness to a base camp with no expedition on it: no aircraft, no other party, and three 7,000 m faces going pink at sunset.

Overnight camping at Churen Himal Base Camp.

Back down the valley, retracing the approach in a single long descent.

The moraine section demands the same care going down as it did coming up, and then the trail eases into alpine scrub and back below the treeline. Losing 1,300 m is hard on the knees and poles help.

Coming down, the valley reads differently: the peaks behind you, the forest closing in ahead, and the air thickening noticeably with every hour.

Gurjaghat (3,200 m) in the afternoon, at the same camp used on the way up, with running water and the luxury of grass under the tents.

Around 6 hours. Overnight camping at Gurjaghat.

A steady walk south out of the valley and back onto the grasslands.

The trail follows the Uttar Ganga downstream through birch and pine, with the valley widening as it goes and the reserve's stock reappearing on the pastures.

There is time on this section to look properly at the reserve. Dhorpatan is unusual in Nepal — a wide, flat, grassy valley at 2,900 m — and the management of hunting permits alongside conservation is a subject your guide can explain and local staff will talk about.

Dhorpatan (2,900 m) in the afternoon, where a few supplies can be topped up and the Tibetan settlement is worth an hour.

Around 5–6 hours. Overnight camping at Dhorpatan.

Back over the pass, with a long day either side of it.

The climb east out of the grasslands to the Jaljala pass (3,414 m) is gentler from this direction, on open grass most of the way. The view from the top is the last of the big mountains — Dhaulagiri, Churen and Gurja together — and worth a long stop.

The descent runs into fir and then rhododendron forest, dropping steadily through the belt you climbed on day six.

Lumsum (2,240 m) in the late afternoon, back among farmland and woodsmoke.

Around 8 hours in total. Overnight camping at Lumsum.

The last walking day, down to the road and out.

The trail descends east through Muri and the Magar villages to the Myagdi Khola and the roadhead at Darbang (1,110 m). It is a long morning of downhill on village paths, four to five hours, ending in subtropical warmth.

This is where the porters and cook crew finish and where tips are given. After twelve nights of camping the crew has carried everything the group ate and slept in, and the farewell is a proper one.

The jeep runs down to Beni and then east to Pokhara (822 m), arriving in the evening — around five hours, the first part rough and the rest paved.

A hotel, a hot shower and a lakeside dinner. Overnight in Pokhara.

A relaxed start. If you wake early, sunrise over the Annapurnas from the lakeside is worth the alarm, and a boat across Phewa Lake fills an hour before breakfast.

We then drive east along the Prithvi Highway to Kathmandu (1,400 m), back through the Trishuli gorge country with a lunch stop en route. It is a full day on the road; the 25-minute flight is available as an add-on if you would rather keep the afternoon free.

You arrive in the late afternoon and transfer to your hotel.

The evening is free, and Thamel is the place for last-minute shopping. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your last day in Nepal. If your flight leaves later there is time for Boudhanath, Pashupatinath or the old town at Bhaktapur with your guide.

Our representative collects you from your hotel and transfers you to Tribhuvan International Airport around three hours before departure.

The western end of Dhaulagiri is one of the least visited parts of the Nepali Himalaya, and Churen Himal is a mountain most trekkers have never heard of. If the emptiness suited you, the Dhaulagiri Circuit next door is the harder version and the Guerrilla Trek continues west from Dhorpatan into Rukum. Safe travels.