Langtang Valley

Langtang Valley is a remote place north of Kathmandu, very close to Tibet. Indeed you can actually see Tibet on some photos on this page, even though I never left Nepal to take them. The official border goes along high mountain peaks, and thus crossing the border would require serious mountaineering skills anyway. The only conventional border post is in an adjacent valley, and off limits for foreigners.

Lower Langtang

Lower Langtang is similar to other 2000-2500m hill regions in Nepal, as you can see from the photos. The population density is lower, though, and that came as a nice surprise to me, as I come from the smallest nation in the world that has its own airline, beer, and football team. There are some very pleasant fir forests in lower Langtang, between Dhunche, Thulo Syabru, and Sing Gompa.

Below you can see a 180-degree panorama over lower Langtang, taken from a hill near Chyolangpati and Sing Gompa. Usually you don't see this kind of view in lower Langtang, as most trails are deep in the valley. The white mountain on the right is the giant Langtang Lirung, and Langtang valley goes along its right hand side. The trail to Gosainkund goes at the extreme right of the panorama (where the hut is). The snowy peaks on the left are in Ganesh Himal, and those in the middle are in Tibet.


Upper Langtang

Upper Langtang is different -- very different. It's a long and wide valley at 4000m altitude, shaped by glaciers. For 10-20km, the valley floor is almost flat -- real flat, not Nepali flat. You can see a lot of barren land, stone mani walls, strong winds and prayer flags. Yaks roam the valley up to 6000m altitude (!). Yak (Nak) cheese is available in some places.

If you want to go higher than the yaks, no problem. Langtang National Park brochures say there are 120 named and unnamed 6000m+ peaks in the area. Many of them rise directly from the valley; indeed, the valley ends with 8013m Shishapangma, which is in Tibet. There are plenty of climbing opportunities for all difficulty levels:


Accommodation is only available up until Kyanjin Gompa, which is just at the beginning of upper Langtang, at 3900m altitude. Above Kyanjin, there are just some kharkas (huts) for yak herders, but no permanent settlement, so camping in/near those kharkas is the only option. However, trips above Kyanjin are so rewarding that for trekkers I definitely recommend renting camping equipment from Kyanjin, and just go to Langshisa Kharka for a few days.

Alternatively, you can spend 4-5 days making long daytrips out of Kyanjin; but you cannot really go farther than Langshisa Kharka without camping, as this makes for a 15+15=30km daytrip already. Just before Langshisa Kharka, the valley turns to the left; behind that turn you discover a whole new world, a hidden part of the valley at the foot of Morimoto, Langshisa Ri, and beautiful Ganchempo (all 6000-7000m).

Unfortunately most trekkers make this classic mistake of trying to cram too much into too little time, and they end up skipping those daytrips because they have to be "back in Kathmandu" for a flight etc. They just trek up to Kyanjin, climb Kyanjin Ri, and go back down the next morning! I can honestly say that for me the real value of Langtang was in those daytrips, and skipping these is really not the way to go.

Yala Peak

Yala Peak (5520m) is usually climbed in two days from Kyanjin, camping at Yala Kharka (4700m) for the night. But it is also possible to do it in just one day, as yet another daytrip from Kyanjin! Doing that was certainly one of the most memorable experiences on my Nepal trip. We started out at 3am. Yes, that's in the middle of the night... but we knew that the snow up there starts to get soft by mid-day, so you really need to be at the top before that if you don't like uphill swimming. And it's a long way to the top: 1600m ascent, 10km horizontally. First 2 hours with flashlights. Good acclimatisation is very important when doing things like this, and it was not really adequate in our case, which made it physically very hard. But anyway, we did it, and I'm still alive.

The above approach photo is taken at 5000m altitude. Most of the climb goes on steep snow slopes, but at times there are ca 50 vertical meters of rocks as well (the rocks were loose). The last 15 meters to the top were climbed on a relatively exposed rock pyramid, with 1500 meters to fall if you are really unlucky. So although it's at the same altitude as Kala Pattar, it's not a peak for everyone. But it's still basically a non-technical trekkers climb. Ice axes were very useful in some places, but not essential. Equipment can be rented in Kyanjin.

On the photo taken at the top, Shishapangma is the broad rocky peak to the right of my head. It was the last eight-thousander to be climbed by a human. The big pile of rock and snow on the left side of the photo is one of the 6000m+ border markers. Shalbachum Glacier is down below. The exhausted fellow on the right is me, face burnt by the sun, lips torn by the wind.

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