Day by Day
Days 1 to 3 Kathmandu to Beni The Road West
Arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport and transfer to the hotel for a welcome from the SherpaHolidays team. The expedition briefing that evening is detailed and important: the Dhaulagiri Circuit is a genuinely demanding expedition, and the preparation required is different in kind from what a standard trekking itinerary involves. The full 23-day route is covered, including the altitude profile from Beni to French Col at 5,360 metres, the acclimatization strategy for Italian Base Camp and Glacier Camp, the specific hazards of the gorge above Italian Base Camp, the camping logistics for 15 nights in the field, and the gear requirements for nights at minus twenty degrees Celsius in the Hidden Valley. The briefing also covers the cultural landscape of the Magar and Gurung villages on the approach and the Tibetan-influenced communities of the Mustang corridor on the return.
The drive west to Pokhara the following morning follows the Prithvi Highway through the middle hills, the Annapurna range visible to the north for much of the journey. Pokhara at 800 metres sits at the southern foot of the range, the great walls of Annapurna and Machapuchare rising directly above the lakeside city. An evening row on Phewa Lake with the reflection of Machapuchare in the water provides a calm and unhurried introduction to the mountain landscape that will define the weeks ahead. The drive to Beni the next morning takes two hours along the Kali Gandaki valley road. Beni is a market town at the confluence of the two rivers, its bridge across the Myagdi Khola the starting point for the trail north into the wilderness of the upper valley.
Stay: Luxury Hotel in Kathmandu then Hotel in Pokhara then Mountain Lodge in Beni
Days 4 to 8 Beni to Dobang The Myagdi Ascent
The trail from Beni follows the Myagdi Khola upstream on a path that is genuinely off the map of mainstream Himalayan trekking. There are no tea houses at regular intervals, no guesthouses at the camp points, and no other trekking groups on most days of the walk. The Magar communities of the lower valley are among the oldest peoples of the western hills, their language and cultural practices distinct from the Gurung villages further up the valley and from the Tibetan-influenced communities of the high terrain above. The houses are stone, the fields are terraced and worked by hand, and the trail passes through settlements that have been in these locations for as long as anyone can reliably trace.
The forest changes character as the trail gains altitude. The subtropical growth of the lower valley gives way to dense oak and fern in the middle section, the trees growing large in forest that has been protected by its remoteness rather than by any formal conservation status. Rhododendron covers the upper slopes and blooms in March and April in shades of red and pink that are visible from below. The trail crosses the river on log bridges in the narrower gorge sections and climbs the valley walls when the river leaves no room at its banks. The villages of Muri, Ramche, and Lapche appear at intervals as staging points, each one smaller and higher than the last. Dobang is reached after five days of walking, a remote settlement set at the edge of the high terrain where the valley walls begin to steepen toward the glacier basin above.
Stay: Professional Tented Camp
Days 9 to 11 Italian Base Camp to Glacier Camp The Glacial World
The approach to Italian Base Camp follows a trail that rises steeply from Dobang into the Chhonbarban glacier basin, the vegetation thinning progressively as altitude replaces forest with high scrub and then bare moraine. The north face of Dhaulagiri I becomes visible as the trail gains height, and it reveals itself gradually: first the upper ice fields above the ridgeline, then the full extent of the face as the basin opens. The north face rises approximately 4,000 metres from the glacier below to the summit at 8,167 metres. At Italian Base Camp at 3,660 metres, you are looking up at one of the largest mountain faces on earth. The acclimatization day here allows the body the altitude adaptation it needs before the higher sections and allows the scale of the mountain above to register properly.
The gorge above Italian Base Camp toward Glacier Camp is the most technically serious terrain on the approach. The narrow channel is prone to rockfall from the walls above, and the guide team has specific protocols for moving through it at the times and pace that minimise risk. The crossing is not exposed for long, but it requires attention and good conditions. Glacier Camp above the gorge sits in a landscape where the familiar elements of a trekking route have been replaced by ice, moraine, and the specific silence of a place above the vegetation line. The sky at this altitude is a deeper blue than it appears below. The peaks surrounding the camp are visible in full on clear days, the glacier below moving slowly and audibly through the night.
Stay: Professional Tented Camp
Days 12 to 14 Dhaulagiri Base Camp to Hidden Valley The High Crossing
Dhaulagiri Base Camp at 4,740 metres sits on a wide moraine bench with the main summit of Dhaulagiri I directly above and the subsidiary peaks of the Dhaulagiri group arranged to the east. The panorama from base camp on a clear morning is one of the finest high-altitude viewpoints in Nepal: a ring of peaks above 7,000 metres with the seventh-highest mountain on earth at its centre. The camp is well established, having been used by mountaineering expeditions attempting the north and north-east faces since the 1950s. The Italian and Swiss expeditions that put the first routes up the north face used this location as their staging point, and the history of the attempts is written in the cairns and hardware that remain on the glacier above.
French Col at 5,360 metres is the highest point of the expedition. The ascent from base camp follows the glacier and then steepens to a snow and ice slope below the col itself. Fixed ropes on the steepest section assist the crossing, and the guide team carries the technical equipment necessary for the conditions. The col is narrow and the wind through it is consistent and cold. On the far side, the Hidden Valley drops away below: a wide plateau of rock and ice at around 5,000 metres enclosed by the Dhaulagiri and Tukuche ranges, the landscape bearing no resemblance to anything visible on the approach from the Myagdi. It is barren and brown and very large and very quiet, and the surrounding peaks above 7,000 metres rise on all sides without the forest or valley that would normally place them in a comprehensible context.
The nights in the Hidden Valley at this time of year are cold in a way that the lower valley does not prepare you for. Temperatures can fall to minus twenty degrees Celsius and the wind chill below the col is significant. The gear requirements for this section are those of a cold-weather alpine expedition rather than a standard trekking trip: a sleeping bag rated to minus twenty-five degrees, a four-season tent, and the layering system appropriate for nights at altitude in a high plateau environment. The SherpaHolidays team provides the camping infrastructure; guests are responsible for their personal sleeping and insulation systems.
Stay: Professional Tented Camp (temperatures to -20°C)
Days 15 to 23 Dhampus Pass to Kathmandu The Long Return
The descent from the Hidden Valley crosses Dhampus Pass on the southern rim of the plateau and drops steeply into the Thapa Col and then down the long ridge toward the Kali Gandaki. The contrast between the terrain above the pass and the terrain below it is one of the more striking transitions on any trekking route in Nepal: the bare rock and ice of the Hidden Valley gives way within a day to the scrub and then the juniper of the upper Mustang, and within two days to the apple orchards and stone lanes of Marpha at 2,670 metres. Marpha is a Tibetan-style village of whitewashed houses with covered walkways that protect against the Kali Gandaki wind, its orchards producing the apples and the apple products, including a brandy that the community has been making for generations, that the village is known for throughout the region.
The trail south from Marpha follows the Kali Gandaki gorge through Tukuche and Ghasa, the gorge walls rising to vertical cliffs on both sides as the river cuts between the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna massifs. This section of the Kali Gandaki is the deepest gorge in the world by the measure of the depth between the river and the adjacent summits: Dhaulagiri at 8,167 metres and Annapurna I at 8,091 metres rise within 35 kilometres of each other on opposite walls of the same valley. The trail through the gorge is sheltered and lower than the terrain above, and the transition from high alpine to subtropical happens quickly as the elevation drops.
Tatopani at 1,190 metres is where the hot springs are, a series of natural pools at the river’s edge fed by geothermal water that emerges at a comfortable bathing temperature. After two weeks of glacier terrain and cold camps, an hour in the Tatopani pools is one of the simpler pleasures available anywhere on a trekking expedition. The final days climb back into the Annapurna foothills through the rhododendron forests above Tadapani and the terraced village of Ghandruk, one of the most prosperous Gurung communities in the Annapurna region. The drive back to Kathmandu from Pokhara follows the same Prithvi Highway as the outward journey, the mountains now behind and the city ahead, and the drive has a different quality from the one three weeks earlier.
Stay: Mountain Lodges then Luxury Hotel in Pokhara then Luxury Hotel in Kathmandu
