My parents could not trek so we did this instead

My mother has bad knees and Everest was never going to happen on foot for her. Chandra suggested the mountain flight when I explained the situation. She got Everest out of the window with the peaks named for her over the announcement and cried a bit. Sometimes the right recommendation is the smaller one.

They booked it for us and it was the best hour of the trip

We had one spare morning in Kathmandu and asked whether anything was possible at short notice. The office had us on a flight the following morning with a hotel pickup before dawn. Forty five minutes and you get Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Kanchenjunga, plus Ama Dablam and Pumori closer in. Everyone gets a window seat and the crew bring you up to the cockpit one at a time for the front view. Worth every rupee for anyone who cannot spare two weeks for the trek.

Best decision was booking with a company that knows this route

There is no infrastructure for trekkers out here and hardly any information online, which is exactly why I wanted a company that had actually run it. Our guide had, several times, and it showed in the small things, knowing where lunch was possible, knowing which stretch between Taka and Lukum gets slippery, knowing whose house to knock on. Chandra organised the whole thing including the jeep out to Beni and the long drive back from Sulichaur.

Fourteen days and nothing above 3000m, which suited us exactly

I wanted something long and remote without the altitude and Chandra pointed me at this instead of the treks I had been looking at. Highest point is around 3015m so there is no acclimatization to worry about, but the days are still full and the country is wild. He was straightforward about the lodges being basic and about there being a couple of tented nights. All true, all fine, because I knew. Permits, transport, porters and every meal were covered.

Dhorpatan is worth the whole trek

Nepal’s only hunting reserve, a wide open valley at 2870m with the Dhaulagiri range to the north, and we had two days around it. Our guide knew the wildlife and pointed out blue sheep on the slopes above Gurjaghat that I would never have spotted. Very few foreigners come through here. He clearly enjoyed showing it to people who wanted to see it.

Great trek amazing time

Between Niseldhor and Jelbang the accommodation is thin and in a couple of villages there is really only somebody’s house. The company had it all arranged in advance and we were expected everywhere we arrived. On a route this new to trekking that is not a small piece of organisation. The Magar families who hosted us could not have been kinder and our guide translated all evening, every evening.

Great Team & Guide, Had Wonderful Time

his route runs through Rukum and Rolpa, which were at the centre of the insurgency, and Thawang in particular carries a lot of that history. Our guide handled all of that carefully. He explained what happened in these villages, answered what we asked, and never turned it into a performance or a lecture. He also knew when to stop and let a place speak for itself. Fourteen days and the walking is only part of what you take home.

Two regions in one trek fantastic experience

You start in Rolwaling, which almost nobody visits, and come out over the pass into the Khumbu at Thame. Standing on the top and seeing Everest and the Khumbu peaks laid out after a week of seeing nobody is something I will not forget. Our guide had walked it many times and knew the Sherpa families in Beding and again in Thame. The rest day at Namche afterwards was welcome and he used it to show us round properly rather than leaving us to it.

Chandra was honest with me about what this trek requires and it helped a lot

I asked a lot of questions before booking because 5755m with a glacier crossing is a step up from anything I had done. He asked what I had trekked before and did not simply take the booking. He was clear about the tented nights, the pass conditions and the fact that you commit once you are past Na village. Everything was as described. Camping equipment, porters, down jacket and sleeping bag all provided, and the permits for both conservation areas handled before I flew.

Tso Rolpa camp was the quietest night of my life

You leave Na village and climb to the lake at 4550m, glacial, enormous, with the Rolwaling ice above it. We camped on the shore. Not another group anywhere. Our guide told us about how the lake has grown over the decades and why they monitor it, which I had no idea about. The cook had hot food out within an hour of us arriving.

The rest day at Beding was used properly

Day 5 is set aside at Beding at 3695m and our guide took us on a high acclimatization walk rather than leaving us in the lodge all day. Gauri Shankar right above the village. Because of that day nobody in our group had a problem at Tso Rolpa or on the pass itself, and I have had altitude trouble before. Whoever built this itinerary understands the difference between resting and doing nothing.

He talked me over Thorong La when I wanted to stop

Day 16 out of Thorong Phedi is eight or nine hours and there is a stretch about two thirds of the way up where the zigzags just keep coming and I genuinely wanted to sit down. Our guide stayed beside me, kept talking, never once made me feel like the problem. We got over. Muktinath in the afternoon with the 108 spouts and the eternal flame at Jwala Mai, and I would not have seen any of it without him.

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