Traverse of Dolpo (July
10-24, 2012)
My
initial plan for this trip was to cross the northern part of Dolpo from the Mugu airport near Rara Lake to Jomson in Lower Mustang. However, several circumstances led
me to change this plan. First, Mugu airport unexpectedly closed for maintenance
soon before my trip, forcing me to start from the small town of Jumla (located a few hiking days south of Mugu airport)
instead. Then, on my way from Kathmandu to Jumla, I
got stuck at Nepalgunj′s airport (southern Nepal) for several days due to
bad monsoon weather. I eventually shared a helicopter with local travelers to
reach Jumla. From Jumla, I
had still hoped to connect to the initially planned itinerary by following the Chaudhabis Khola from Matachaur toward Dolphu. But lack
of time and more bad weather dashed this hope, forcing me to settle for a
shorter itinerary. This was a disappointment, but I had not allocated enough
time for this trip, nor had I picked the most favorable time period to travel,
although Dolpo is supposed to be somewhat shielded
from monsoon rains. The only good thing of traveling in July is that
temperatures stay mild. Even the highest passes above 5000m are free of snow.
Location
of the trek between Jumla and Jomson.
A
sketch of our final itinerary is shown below in plain red line. Dotted lines in
black represent other trails. Thick black dots mark village locations. Passes
are indicated in blue. The segment between Hurikot
and Maduwa coincides with the one I had taken in 2008
to cross Nepal. We left Jumla on July 10 and we
reached Kagbeni 14 days later on July 23. A 2-hour
walk on July 24 led us to Jomson. Between July 15 and
21, we crossed 7 (easy) passes above 5000m, the first being Kagmara
La and the last Jungben La, in 7 consecutive days.
During
this trip, I was accompanied by an excellent team of 4 porters led by Dawa (at
the center on the photo below). The two porters on the left, Tshering
and Kabirajhaba, had already traveled with me in the spring
of 2011. As usual, the logistics for this trip had been arranged by Ang Karma Sherpa′s Windhorse Trekking.
Click
the links below to access photos of the successive sections.
Section 1: Nepalgunj
to Matachaur |
Section 2: Matachaur to Tibetan camp above Maduwa |
Section 3: Crossing
Bagala La and Numala La |
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Section 4: Dho Tarap Valley |
Section 5: Maran
to Chharka Bhot |
Section 6: Chharka Bhot to Jomson |
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