Rara Lake to Dolpo trek 2018 - page 1
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This roughly 4 weeks trek was originally planned to go all the way from Rara to Jomsom via Shey Gompa, Phoksumdo, Dho Tarap and Charkha but turned out to be a little too ambitious in that time frame as we had some delays on several occasions. In the end we exited Dolpo at Jhupal and flew back to Nepalgunj.
We did this trip from around mid October to mid November. Although it is often considered to be a bit too late in the year it has the advantage of offering very stable, dry weather and generally snow free trails. The disadvantages compared to travelling earlier in the year is that days are short, temperatures lower (which also makes crossing freezing rivers difficult) and all is very dry and barren.
For the best part of the trek there is no accommodation and it is nearly impossible to resupply with food or fuel. There is no electricity, river water is often frozen or near freezing. Mobile phones do not work anywhere and the nearest roads are many days walk away. This trip can only be done in full expedition style.
The first page below shows the first 4 days of the trek.
We flew from Nepalgunj to Talcha airport near Rara Lake and after hiking up to see Rara Lake at 3000m (Nepal's largest) we headed down - a 1000m descent through terraced fields - to the small town of Gamghadi then towards the East following the Karnali river (Mugu Karnali Nadi) for 3 days via Lumsa and Mangri up to Tyar (2420m). We then turned north-east following the Mugu Nadi to Shilenchaura Kharka (3000m), a small seasonal settlement located on the way to the village of Mugu and Tibet where we camped for two nights. Although we were following a river the walk involved quite a lot of up and down.
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