The first big trip of 2017 will be the long awaited Dolpo expedition – four weeks trekking in the Dolpa (Dolpā, डोल्पा) district of Nepal and into Upper / Inner Dolpo (དོལ་པོ ). Flights booked today, which makes this trip “confirmed” in my book!
Destination: Dolpa, northern Nepal.
When: April / May 2017
Why: Because it’s been somewhere I’ve wanted to trek in for ages, ever since we did the return leg of the Annapurna Circuit and gazed at the mountains on the western side of the Kali Gandaki river…. and Christine and Val decided that 2017 would be The Year, and Steffi and Charles persuaded me that it wasn’t going to get any cheaper! This last factor after the Nepali Government introduced permit fees for Lower Dolpo, on top of last year’s increase to $500++ for Upper Dolpo.
How: With Val Pitkethly – who else!? Flights booked with Emirates via FlySharp / Kayak.
Highlights:
- Getting through the jetlag, chilling out with Val’s Tibetan family in Pokhara before starting the trek
- Another chunk of the Grand Himalayan Trail
- High passes and big, big Himalayan mountains, including Dhaulagiri (8167 m / 26795 ft), the 7th highest in the world.
- Shey Phoksumdo National Park (शे-फोकसुण्डो)
- Phoksundo Lake (फोक्सुण्डो ताल)
- Shey Gompa and the Crystal Mountain, which feature in Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard