Nepal Trekking

KANCHANJUNGA TREK

Located in far Eastern Nepal, Kanchenjunga is one of the most remote and beautiful areas to trek. Unused to foreign visitors, much of the area still lies shrouded in mystery. You will pass through picturesque villages as you climb towards the enormous Kanchenjunga massif. Abundant wildlife can be seen along the trail including musk deer, blue sheep and, for the believer, the Yeti! Magnificent views of Everest, Makalu and the Kanchenjunga massif will make the trip memorable.

Highlights: Seeing the 3rd highest mountain in the world up close. Apart from this, there are glaciers to trek on; High Mountain passes to challenge you, forests of rhododendron, and the chance to see many of the native Nepali communities such as Sherpa, Limbu, Rai and Gurung.
 

ITINERARY

Day 01: Arrive Kathmandu
Duration:
Height: 1300 m
Meet with our representative at the airport. Drive to hotel.

Day 02: Kathmandu
Duration: 4 hrs
Height: 1300 m Half day sightseeing. O/N at hotel

Day 03: Kathmandu – Basantapur
Duration: 6-7 hrs
We fly to Biratnagar, an industrial city in the lowlands of Eastern Nepal. From here we drive to Basantapur, a Tibetan settlement where we pitch our first camp.

Day 04: Basantapur - Chauki
Duration: 5-6 hrs
Height: 3034 m
We start climb through some villages and arrive at Panch Pokhari. The views of Makalu 8476m and Chamlang are today's highlights. We continue through rhododendron forests to the hamlet of Door Pani 2780m for overnight camp. After a gentle climb through more rhododendron forests to a mountain ridge, we drop down to the village of Tongise Phedi and continue to Chanki, an area used for summer pasture. We can find 15-20 tea houses on the way.

Day 05: Chauki – Gupa Pokhari
Duration: 4-5 hrs
Height: 2697m
We continue through grassy fields with Mt. Makalu in constant view. Soon the Kanchenjunga range appears and we come to Mongol Bharai pass, lined with mani stones. We descend to a lake, Gupa Pokhari, for our camp.

Day 06: Gupha Pokhari - Gurjagoan
Duration: 5-6 hrs
Height: 2713 m
 Today we cross a pass at 3025m, descend through a dense forest towards Gurja Gaon and Nesum (2100m) with Mt. Jannu and Mt. Kanchenjunga behind us. We camp in Gurja Goan.

Day 07: Gurjagoan - Doban
Duration: 3-4 hrs
Today we visit the central hub of this region, Taplejung. We descend to Doban through paddy fields at the bank of Tamur River. It is a quite steep way from Gurjagoan to Doban with the magnificent views of beautiful hills. Here, we can find the settlements of the Sherpas, Limbus, Brahmans, Newars etc.

Day 08: Dovan– Mitlung
Duration: 4 – 5 hrs
We walk through the Tamur River valley to Mitlung. Most of the day we walk through the fields, jungles and rigged trail. On the way you can get chance to see different birds and can hear the singing of the birds, we can also different colored fishes in the river. Arriving Mitlung very small settlement of Gurung and camp here.

Day 09: Mitlung – Chiruwa
Duration: 5-6 hrs
Continuing up the Tamur River in a valley populated by the Limbu peoples, the descendants of the Kirati warriors who ruled Nepal at the dawn of Nepalese history, we camp near Chiruwa, a pleasant bazaar with a few tea houses and shops.

Day 10: Chiruwa - Sekathum
Duration: 6-7 hrs
We continue up the Tamur past Tapethok and cross the Simbuwa Khola, a river formed by the Yalung Glacier. We climb over another ridge to join the Ghunsa Khola valley and camp by the banks of the river at Sakathum.

Day 11: Sekathum - Amjilassa
Duration: 5-6 hrs
We follow a steep and narrow trail up river. From the high spots there are wonderful views of the Ghunsa Khola below. The path descends steeply and we arrive at the mountainside village of Amjilassa for our overnight stay.

Day 12: Amjilassa - Kyapar
Duration: 5-6 hrs
We shall be doing some real climbing during the next 5 days! We climb steeply to Kyapar, perched in the middle of terraced hills about 350m up from the Ghunsa Khola.

Day 13: Kyapar - Ghunsa
Duration: 5-6 hrs
We descend from Kyapar and make an easy climb up the right bank of the Ghunsa Khola. After the village of Phere, we enter rhododendron forests and climb a gentle hill before descending back down to the Ghunsa Khola and crossing a wooden bridge to the village of Ghunsa.

Day 14: Khambachen
Today we glimpse the Jannu Glacier. Later on we get a view of Jannu (7710m.) We descend the mountainside to our camp at Khambachan.

Day 15: Khambachen
We have had to climb over 2500m in the last 4 days and so deserve a rest today to collect our thoughts on how wild and wonderful everything has been so far.

Day 16: Khambachen - Lhonak
Duration: 6 hrs
Well rested, we shall now start a stint of real climbing. We trek to the edge of Kanchenjunga Glacier and cross over to the Lhonak Glacier. We arrive at our campsite at Lhonak, from where we can see the trekking peak Mera (6476m.)

Day 17: Day Trip to Pangpema
Duration: 2- 4 hrs
We shall have excellent views of the towering peak of Kanchenjunga today.

Day 18: Khambachen - Tha Passes
Duration: 7hrs
We will decide today which of the two passes we will cross, depending on the weather conditions: Lapsang La, the higher pass at 5180m or the Mirgin La at 4500m.

Day 19: High Camp
We shall again rest today to recover from the efforts of the previous days.

Day 20: High Camp-Ramche
Duration: 6 hrs
We descend to the Simbuwa Khola valley and camp at Ramche.

Day 21: Ramche- Tseram
Duration: 6 hrs
We take a day trip to the Yalung glacier for a magnificent view of the Kanchenjunga south face from a chorten at about 4500m. We descend later to Tseram for the night.

Day 22: Tseram-Torontam
Duration: 6 hrs
We are starting to descend from today. We steadily descend through forests of Rhododendron to Torontan at 3000m.

Day 23: Torontam-Yamphudin
Duration: 6 hrs
We descend today to Yamphudin (1650m,) a mixed community of Sherpas, Limbus, Rais and Gurungs and are the first real village since Ghunsa.

Day 24: Yamphudin-Ponphe
Duration: 6 hrs
We descend from Yamphudin to the Kabel Khola and climb to Ponphe 1680m.

Day 25: Ponphe-Pha Khola
Duration: 5 hrs
From Ponphe we climb to a ridge then descend through as series of side valleys past Phun village to Kesawa. The trail continues to ascend to a Gurung settlement at Bhanjyang (pass.) From here the trail traverses a ridge and descends to the Limbu village of Khunjari. We camp below on the banks of Pha Khola.

Day 26: Pha Khola- Taplejung
Duration: 5 hrs
We descend today to the airport of Taplejung for our overnight stay.

Day 27: Taplejung-Kathmandu
We fly this morning back to Kathmandu via Biratnagar after an amazing trek.

Day 28: Depart

Transfer to airport and depart.