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The Walled City of Lo Manthang
Home/Treks/Mustang / Kingdom of Lo/Upper Mustang Trek
Kingdom of Lo · Lo Manthang · Rain Shadow
Upper Mustang sits in the rain shadow north of the Annapurnas, which makes it the one major trek that works through the monsoon. The walk up the Kali Gandaki leads to Lo Manthang, a walled city that was the capital of a Tibetan kingdom until 2008 — cave monasteries, ochre cliffs and a landscape closer to Tibet than to Nepal.
Airport pickup and transfer to your Thamel hotel. Evening briefing, and we take your passport overnight for the Upper Mustang permit.
Two short flights, the second through the Kali Gandaki gorge between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. Afternoon acclimatisation walk around Jomsom.
A short first day up the riverbed into the wind, which gets up every morning. Kagbeni is the checkpoint where Upper Mustang begins.
Past Tangbe and Chhusang, where the cliffs turn red and the sky-caves start appearing in the rock faces above the trail.
Two passes and a lot of climbing. This is the day the landscape stops looking like Nepal and starts looking like Tibet.
Over the Yamda La and past Ghar Gompa, the oldest monastery in Mustang, founded before Samye in Tibet.
Along the longest mani wall in Nepal to Tsarang, with its five-storey white dzong and its monastery library.
Over the Lo La and the first sight of the walled city on the plain below — the capital of the Kingdom of Lo until 2008.
The three great monasteries inside the walls in the morning, then out to Chhoser and the Jhong cave complex — five storeys of chambers dug into a cliff.
South by the western route via Ghar Gompa, a different trail from the way up and quieter for it.
Retrace to Chhusang and take a jeep down the riverbed to Jomsom, which saves a hard day walking into the afternoon wind.
The morning flight out of Jomsom before the wind, then on to Kathmandu. Certificate handover at the office.
Prices per person, twin-share · 20% deposit confirms · Balance payable in Kathmandu
We provide free of charge: an 80 L duffel bag, sleeping bag and down jacket for the trek — handed over at your Kathmandu briefing, returned after the trek. Anything missing can be bought or rented in Thamel; your guide will help you shop.
Upper Mustang costs US$ 500 per person for ten days, plus US$ 50 for each further day, and it is included in our price. The fee is set by the government and a share goes to the region. A licensed guide and a minimum of two trekkers are also required by law.
Yes — it is the reason to come in summer. Mustang sits in the rain shadow north of the Annapurnas and stays largely dry from June to August while the rest of Nepal is under cloud. The Jomsom flights are the weak link, so we build the schedule around them.
Moderate. Nothing goes above 3,900 m and there are no big passes, but the days are long, the trail climbs and drops constantly, and the afternoon wind up the Kali Gandaki is relentless. Walking finishes early for that reason.
Teahouse throughout. Lodges in Mustang are simple but solid, most with private rooms in Lo Manthang and Tsarang. Camping is no longer necessary on this route.
The three fifteenth-century monasteries inside the walls — Jampa, Thubchen and Chodey — and the Chhoser caves an hour north. If your dates fall in May, the Tiji festival is the reason people come back.
We went in July when everywhere else in Nepal was under monsoon and walked twelve dry days. Lo Manthang is genuinely like nowhere else — closer to Tibet than to Kathmandu. Worth every rupee of the permit.
Tenzing knew every monastery custodian by name and got us into rooms most groups do not see. The wind is real — start early, finish by two, and it is a superb trek.
