A High Traverse of Western Nepal
(September 16 - November 12, 2008)
In
the fall of 2008, I did a long trek from the NW border of Nepal with India
to the small town of Arughat about 100km from Kathmandu.
During this trek I was accompanied by five sherpas. We trekked for 56
consecutive days over 1100 km, crossing 21 main passes with a cumulated
elevation gain of 50 km. The approximate itinerary is shown in blue lines on
the maps below (click here
for a full-resolution image of the map on the right). This was an amazing trek,
full of contrasts, among very different cultures and people, from the end of
the monsoon season to the beginning of the dry winter, from low to high
elevation, from lush to desert-like sceneries, from rarely trekked areas of
West Nepal to the over-trekked Annapurna and
Manaslu circuits.
Ang
Karma Sherpa, the owner of Windhorse
Trekking, helped me set up the itinerary for this trek and arranged the
permits and logistics. His intimate knowledge of Nepal and his mountaineering
expertise were invaluable. He had previously helped organizing several mountain
expeditions in which I had participated (Cho Oyu in 2001 and 2002 and Kyajo Ri
in 2006).
Sonam
(1) was the leader of my Sherpa crew
Pasang,
Sonam (2), Sonam (3), and Nawang were the other members of the crew
Some
of the people we met during this trek
Sceneries
(in chronological order from top to bottom and left to right)
Click
on the links below to get more information and to see more photos:
Leg 1:
Baitadi to Chetty
Leg 2:
Chetty to Seti Khola
Leg 3:
Seti Khola to Kolti
Leg 4:
Kolti to Hurikot
Leg 5:
Hurikot to Dunai
Leg 6:
Dunai to Beni
Leg 7:
Beni to Dharapani
Leg 8:
Dharapani to Arughat
