Monsoon Trekking: Helumbu

At the beginning of these posts I advised that these blog posts are a retelling of my experience, and should not nescisarily be used as an itinerary. When talking about the route we took through Helumbu, I really mean it; both because we took a few wrong turns and because we squeezed it all into one epic 31 mile day with my GPS unit telling me that we had near 6,500' of elevation gain and over 13,000' of elevation lost. I think some of the mistakes we made should be somewhat informative to other hikers and act as a warning to not make the same dumb mistakes.

I passed through this section of trail before back in 04', but unfortunately the more interesting villages of Melamchigaon and Tarke Ghyang were not on our itinerary. Our route took us over only half of the Helumbu Circuit, starting at Therapati and heading south to Sundarijal and on to Kathamndu.

Another Clear Morning; Hills as Seen from Therapati

Another clear morning greeted us, and for some reason that morning nothing on the menu really appealed to either one of us and we settled for just some lemon tea and decided that we could stop possibly in Khutumsang for a late breakfast or early lunch. The morning was a bit on the cool side, but again the skies were clear and it looked to be another great day for trekking. Our plan for today was to do a double days hike and make for Chisopani, a village just on the outskirts of Shivapuri National Park, and only about four hours from Sundarijal. My plan was still to walk all the way back to my front door. I figured it was just over five miles from Sundarijal to Boudha and then only two and a half miles from Boudha to my apartment. 

Fog Surrounds a Stupa just South of Khutumsang

Monsoon Trekking: Gosainkund

The trail up to and through the Gosainkund area was by far my favorite part of this trip. We got some stunning views, and the trail itself was a real joy...though Donnie may disagree with me on that last part. When I left off in the last post we had spent the night at the Landslide Hotel, named I guess for the large landslide coming down the valley face on the opposite side of the river. After a good nights sleep and some breakfast the next morning we were ready to go..kind of. Donnie, on top of his cold and bum ankle, was now also experiencing some gastro-intestinal distress. Being the task master I am, I told him it was a mere 6,000 vertical feet to Singh Gompa, a spot I hoped we could have some lunch at before pressing on to Laurabina Yak, where I hoped to spend the night.

Chorten in the Forest North of Singh Gompa

After leaving the guest house we quickly came to the split in the trail with the right path leading to Syrafru Besi and the one on the left heading to Thulo Syrafru, where we were headed. The trail almost immediately became steep, turning to switchbacks. Some Nepal gray langur monkeys played in the trees at the edge of the trail, though they were a bit too shy for pictures. After about a thousand feet or so of climbing the trail leveled off a bit, we passed a seasonal tea shack and rounded the mountain to a suspension bridge. As I was crossing the bridge I was lamenting that we were five days into this trip and I had not seen a single leech....I mean I didn't want to really deal with the things, but to go a whole trek in the monsoons and not even have an opportunity to brag about fending them off and such was disappointing in some strange, possibly masochistic way. Well, as they say be careful what you wish for.

The Big Monsoon Lie

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom."
-Thomas Paine


If you read any guidebook, trekking book, or talk to almost anyone in Nepal, both foreign or local, about trekking during the monsoon you will get the same answer; don't. Many books and people will advise that you only trek in places where you are in the Himalayan rain shadow, but many of these places require expensive permits like Mustang and upper Dolpo. Others like the Nar and Phu valley, which has a cheaper permit still requires that you use a guide and sign up through a trekking agency. Eventually this will be something I will do personally, but many people (including myself in most cases) enjoy independent trekking and like to be able to hit the trail on their own terms. The result of this common knowledge about monsoon trekking creates a complete lack of tourists through the summer months; Thamel has only a trickle of tourists and the trails are all but empty. You can go entire days without seeing another foreign  trekker.


Why is the trekking so bad during the monsoons?