Upper Dolpo Trekking

UPPER DOLPO Trekking & SHEY GOMPA

“trekking around snow leopard trail to crystal monastery”

An awesome journey with Encounters Nepal fabulous trek to Upper Dolpo & Shey Gompa, where you will be completely captivated by its amazing ambiance in complete wilderness on Nepal far wild west.

Upper Dolpo & Shey Gompa starting with a panoramic flight from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj city located in the Far South West Nepal near to UP in India, a sub-tropical place with strong Indian influence in culture and its way of life of the people around here.

During the 50 minutes flight to Nepalgunj one can observe unparallel views of snow capped mountains from the take off to landing which includes Langtang-Jugal- Ganesh Himal, Manaslu, Lamjung, Annapurna to Dhaulagiri range of mountains.

With overnight in this warm city of Nepalgunj, our adventure continues with another short flight of 45 minutes towards Far North West Nepal to Dolpo landing at Jhupal airstrip at 2,320 meters high, here on joining with our fellow trekking staff of guides, cook, kitchen helpers and porters, a short drive leads to Dunai town.

Dunai 2,850 m the headquarter town of whole Dolpo which lies within Shey-Phuksundo National Park covering an area of 3,555 Sq.Kms. Situated in the mountain region of western Nepal, covering parts of Dolpo and Mugu Districts. It is the largest national park of Nepal.

From Dunai our real adventure start walking towards Thulo Bheri Valley, after a while it leads to a ridge at Phuksundo river valley at 2,499 meters, with magnificent views of Kagamara Peak, after few days of nice trek reaching at Ringmo around beautiful Phuksundo Lake after overnights in Ankhe and Sulighat villages.

In Phuksundo Lake and Ringmo village with rest day for acclamatsation at the height of 3,500 meters high, spending two nights exploring the village where the culture and way of life of Dolpo highlanders are similar of South West Tibet in Buddhist and Bon culture including ancient traditions.

From this charming place our next adventure of Upper Dolpo & Shey Gompa leads towards

Phoksundo Bhanjyang with a steep climb and fantastic views of surrounding hills and valley with snow capped peak to reach Shey Gompa via Kang-La pass at 5,360 meters, the highest point of this adventure.

Shey Gompa at 4,500 meters high also known as Crystal Monastery a well deserved rest day after a hard walks, here explore the mystical old  Monastery, as Shey means crystal in native language, description of the area is well defined by Peter Matthiessen in his classic novel “The Snow Leopard”. The monastery just nearby stands Crystal Mountain one of the strangest mountains, as its contorted cliffs is laced with quartz and embedded with a rich variety of marine fossils. 

Our return journey heading back to Jhupal and Dunai, taking an alternative route through interesting villages of Namdun, Saldang, Yangze Gompa and Tokyu Gaon via several high passes of Saldang-la 5,200 meters and Jeng-la 5,090 meters high.  

Finally walking to Tarakot one of the finest village of Dolpo area this picturesque village with a nice terraced cultivated fields and an old fortress around this village. 

(past hundred years, before Gorkha dynasty, this beautiful was the capital and had Dzong meaning Fort of the Malla regime). 

This remarkable and finest adventure Upper Dolpo & Shey Gompa comes to an end at Jhupal, with flight back to Kathmandu with brief stop in Nepalgunj for transit flight to Kathmandu after 50 mins airborne with tremendous views of mountain range landing at Kathmandu domestic airport, Encounters Nepal staff transfer you to respective hotels with afternoon free at leisure.