Upper Mustang Trek

You arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m) and are met by our representative for the transfer to your hotel in Thamel.

Your guide runs the pre-trek briefing. Upper Mustang is a restricted area — the former Kingdom of Lo was closed to outsiders entirely until 1992 and still requires a special permit, a licensed guide and a minimum of two trekkers. We go through the permit arrangements, the daily stages, and what to expect from a landscape completely unlike the rest of Nepal: this is Tibetan plateau country in the rain shadow of the Annapurnas, arid, wind-scoured and startlingly colourful.

Kit needs are different here too. It rarely rains, but the wind after midday is relentless, so a windproof shell, sunglasses, high-factor sun cream and a buff for the dust matter more than a heavy waterproof. The rest of the day is free. Overnight in Kathmandu.

After breakfast we take the Prithvi Highway west out of the Kathmandu Valley toward Pokhara (822 m), following the Trishuli River through its gorge for much of the 200 km journey.

It is an easy day and a good introduction to middle-hill Nepal — terraced farmland, roadside bazaars, suspension footbridges and rafting groups on the green water below. We stop for lunch at a riverside restaurant partway along.

Pokhara is reached in the late afternoon, sitting on the shore of Phewa Lake with the Annapurna massif rising directly behind it. Tomorrow's flight to Jomsom is an early one and depends entirely on morning wind conditions in the Kali Gandaki, so we make sure bags are packed and ready tonight. Overnight in Pokhara.

An early flight, because the Kali Gandaki wind picks up sharply through the morning and the Jomsom strip closes to traffic by mid-morning most days. The 20-minute flight is spectacular: the aircraft flies between Dhaulagiri (8,167 m) and Annapurna I (8,091 m), straight up the deepest gorge on earth.

Landing at Jomsom (2,700 m), the change is immediate — you have crossed the Himalaya into its rain shadow, and the green of Pokhara is replaced by bare rock, wind and enormous open sky.

After breakfast we walk north up the wide gravel bed of the Kali Gandaki to Kagbeni (2,800 m), roughly three hours. Kagbeni is a medieval-looking village of mud-brick alleys, tunnels and a red-walled monastery, sitting where the Jhong Khola meets the main river. It is the checkpoint for Upper Mustang: beyond the police post here, the restricted permit begins. Overnight in Kagbeni.

Permits are checked at the Kagbeni post and you enter Upper Mustang proper. From here on the number of trekkers drops to a handful.

The trail follows the east bank of the Kali Gandaki north through Tangbe and Chhusang, small oasis villages of whitewashed houses, apple orchards and barley fields set against completely barren hillsides. The contrast between irrigated green and raw red-brown rock is the defining image of Mustang.

Beyond Chhusang the route passes an extraordinary formation of eroded red cliffs riddled with ancient cave dwellings, crosses the river, and climbs to the village of Chele (3,050 m). From here the trail leaves the main river valley for good and starts working across a series of high passes and side canyons. The wind will have been at your back for most of the afternoon. Overnight in Chele.

The days now settle into the rhythm of Mustang: climb a pass, drop into a canyon, climb the next one. Today crosses three.

From Chele the trail climbs steeply to the Taklam La (around 3,620 m), then continues over Dajori La with wide views back toward Nilgiri, Tilicho Peak and the Annapurnas behind you. The path descends to Samar (3,660 m), a small poplar-shaded village, before dropping into a deep gorge and climbing out again to the Bhena La and Yamda La.

The landscape is the reason to be here — layered cliffs in red, ochre, grey and purple, wind-carved into fins and hoodoos, with almost no vegetation. Along the way a short detour reaches the cave gompa of Rangbyung, a natural cavern filled with stalagmite formations regarded as sacred. The day finishes at Syangboche (3,475 m). Overnight in a teahouse.

A shorter day with two passes. The trail climbs from Syangboche over the Syangboche La at about 3,850 m and drops to Ghiling (3,860 m), a village of flat-roofed houses among barley fields with a small gompa above it.

From Ghiling the route climbs again to the Nyi La at around 4,010 m — the highest point reached so far and, in effect, the boundary between lower and upper Lo. The view north from the top opens onto the plateau country that leads to Lo Manthang.

The descent leads to Ghami (3,500 m), one of the larger settlements in Mustang, sheltered behind poplar windbreaks in an otherwise wholly exposed landscape. Just beyond the village stands the longest mani wall in Nepal, several hundred metres of stacked prayer stones running across the hillside — walk it clockwise, as pilgrims do. Overnight in Ghami.

The trail crosses the Ghami Khola on a suspension bridge and then passes the great mani wall before climbing toward Dhakmar (3,800 m), set beneath what are probably the most photographed cliffs in Mustang — an enormous wall of vivid red rock, pocked with caves.

Local legend ties the colour to Guru Rinpoche: when he subdued a demoness to allow the founding of Lo Gekar monastery, her blood is said to have stained these cliffs red. Whether or not you find that persuasive, the sight of them in afternoon light is remarkable.

The route climbs over the Mui La at around 4,170 m and descends to Charang (3,560 m), a substantial village strung along a canyon with a large red-walled fortress and monastery at its eastern end. The gompa holds an important collection of thangkas and statues, and the caretaker will usually open it for visitors. Overnight in Charang.

The day you reach the walled city. The trail climbs out of the Charang canyon and crosses the Lo La at about 3,950 m, and from the top you get the first view of Lo Manthang on the plain below — a compact rectangle of whitewashed buildings entirely enclosed by a mud-brick wall, with the Tibetan border ridge behind it.

The descent to the city takes about an hour across open plateau. Lo Manthang (3,770 m) was founded in 1380 and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Lo for six centuries; the royal palace still stands, and the last king, Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, held the title until Nepal abolished the monarchy in 2008.

Inside the walls the city is a maze of narrow alleys with roughly 150 households, four major monasteries and no vehicles. Arriving in the early afternoon leaves time to walk the perimeter and get oriented. Overnight in Lo Manthang.

A full day in and around the capital. The morning is usually given to the city's monasteries: Jampa Lhakhang, dating from 1448 and holding a vast clay Maitreya Buddha; Thubchen Gompa, a huge assembly hall with painted columns; and Chodey Gompa, still the main working monastery. Several were restored over two decades by an international conservation project and the murals are extraordinary.

In the afternoon we ride or walk north to Chhoser (3,800 m), close to the Tibetan border, to visit the Jhong cave complex — a five-storey warren of around forty chambers cut into a sheer cliff face, connected by internal ladders and shafts. Believed to be over 2,500 years old, its original purpose is still debated: dwellings, meditation cells, burial chambers or refuge during raids.

The Nyphu cave monastery nearby is built into the rock in similar fashion. Overnight in Lo Manthang.

We leave Lo Manthang and begin the return, taking a different line where the terrain allows so the walk back is not simply a repeat.

The trail crosses back over the Lo La and descends toward Ghar Gompa, one of the oldest monasteries in Nepal — founded in the 8th century and associated with Guru Rinpoche himself, predating Samye in Tibet. It is a small, unassuming red building in an empty landscape, and it is a genuinely significant site.

From Ghar Gompa the route continues over open plateau and descends to Dhakmar (3,800 m) beneath the red cliffs seen on the way north. Sleeping directly under them gives you the evening light, which is when the colour is at its most intense. The wind here is strong and constant through the afternoon. Overnight in Dhakmar.

A steady day back through the heart of Lo. The trail descends from Dhakmar past the long mani wall to Ghami (3,500 m), then climbs the long pull back to the Nyi La (4,010 m) — the highest pass on the route, and harder in this direction.

From the top there is a last wide view north across the plateau toward Lo Manthang and the Tibetan border, worth stopping for before the trail drops away south.

The descent leads down to Ghiling (3,860 m), a compact village of flat-roofed stone houses set among barley terraces and sheltered by poplars, with a small gompa on the slope above. Afternoons in Mustang follow a reliable pattern — still and bright in the morning, then a hard, gritty wind from midday — so an early finish is welcome. Overnight in Ghiling.

A long descending day that unwinds most of the height gained on the way in. The trail recrosses the Nyi La approach and works back south through the canyon country, over Yamda La and Bhena La and down to Samar (3,660 m).

Below Samar the path drops into the deep gorge and climbs back out to Chele, then descends steeply to the floor of the Kali Gandaki. Rejoining the main river valley after days in the side canyons is a distinct change of scale — the riverbed here is enormously wide and flat, braided with grey channels.

The trail follows it down to Chhusang (3,050 m), passing beneath the eroded red cliffs and their honeycomb of ancient caves. Chhusang is an oasis village of apple and apricot orchards behind stone walls. Overnight in Chhusang.

The last walking day, and it is mostly downhill along the great gravel bed of the Kali Gandaki. The trail passes through Tangbe, with its narrow alleys and whitewashed chortens, and returns to Kagbeni (2,800 m), where you check out of the restricted area at the police post.

It is worth a last hour in Kagbeni's tunnelled lanes before continuing south. Below the village the valley widens further and the wind is squarely in your face for the final stretch — this is one of the windiest valleys in the world, and by early afternoon it is a real physical presence.

Keep an eye on the riverbed as you walk: the Kali Gandaki is famous for shaligrams, black ammonite fossils from the Tethys Sea that once lay where the Himalaya now stands, and which Hindus revere as manifestations of Vishnu. The day ends at Jomsom (2,700 m). Overnight in Jomsom.

An early flight again, for the same reason as the inbound one — the Kali Gandaki wind makes the Jomsom strip unusable from mid-morning. Flights are scheduled at first light.

The 20-minute flight south runs down the gorge between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, and the transition is remarkable: within a few minutes you go from brown high desert to the green, humid, terraced hills around Pokhara (822 m).

Jomsom flights are weather-dependent and cancellations do happen, so a buffer day before an international connection is always sensible; the road alternative to Pokhara takes a full day. Once in Pokhara the rest of the day is free — a hot shower, lunch by the lake, and an easy afternoon. Overnight in Pokhara.

A relaxed morning by the lake before the drive east. If you are up early, sunrise on Annapurna and Machhapuchhre from the lakeside is worth it — you have just flown between those peaks twice.

We then take the Prithvi Highway back to Kathmandu (1,400 m), following the Marsyangdi and Trishuli rivers through the gorges. It is a full day on the road with a lunch stop, arriving in the capital in the late afternoon.

After checking in, the evening is free. Thamel is a short walk for souvenirs, and Mustang-specific ones are worth looking for — hand-woven wool, Tibetan-style jewellery and, in some shops, genuine shaligram fossils from the Kali Gandaki. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your last day in Nepal. If your flight leaves later, Boudhanath Stupa is a fitting place to finish after two weeks in Tibetan Buddhist country — the stupa is the centre of Kathmandu's Tibetan community and the monasteries around it belong to the same tradition as the gompas of Lo.

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

Upper Mustang is unlike any other trek in Nepal: a high desert plateau in the rain shadow of the Himalaya, a walled medieval capital, 2,500-year-old cliff caves, and monasteries older than almost anything in Tibet. If you want more of the same character, the Dolpo treks and the Limi Valley in Humla cover comparable Tibetan borderland country. Safe travels.