Trail side Temple, Kambachen. D.L.Mazur. Scott Trekking to base. D.L.Mazur. The North Face at sunset. S.Darsney

All of your luggage will be carried by porters except for a small day pack.

Each days hiking is not too long (6 hours max) allowing time to enjoy the scenery, take photos and meet the local people.    

TREK DESCRIPTION

Our trek begins in the exciting city of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. We fly to Taplejung (2000m) by small plane where we will prepare loads and hire our porters. Leaving Taplejung we hike across terraced hills and over an overgrown and forested slide area to the village of Phurumba (922m) where we will camp. Here we are still in the hot lowlands of Nepal and  the people we meet are mostly Hindu with a smattering of Buddhist Gurungs and Limbus, who are know for their Thomba, a strong alcoholic drink served from a gourd. We hike down into Tamur Khola valley and follow the roaring Tamur river. Rising from the river are huge overhanging cliffs with large beehives in them. The local "Honey hunters" are famous for dangling from bamboo ladders to rob the honey. (see National Geographic vol 174). We will camp at the village of Chiruwa (1270m). We continue up the valley then cross the huge suspension bridge at Hellok and up to village of Ghaiya Bai (2050m). There are few people living in this area which is closed in by towering cliffs and numerous waterfalls, including one hot waterfall that gushes from a hot spring in the cliffs. We now follow a different river, the Ghunsa, along one of the steepest valleys in Nepal. As the valley widens out we pass through forests of bamboo, oak and rhododendron and more waterfalls to the little hamlet of Kyapra (2700m). Here we get our first views of the mountains, in particular the notorious and deadly Jannu. 

Continuing through some rare larch forest we reach Ghunsa (3440m), the last village in the valley. Ghunsa consists of many wooden houses covered in prayer flags. This is a Buddhist community of Tibetan refugees who settled here 100-300 years ago and has an interesting Monastery. The culture here is very different from Everest due to the lack of tourism or trade routes. Here we will pay off our porters and transfer our loads to Yaks. Leaving Ghunsa we hike through large Rhododendron forests with birch trees smothered in hanging lichens, and finally climb above tree line into wide grassy valleys where hopefully we will see some wild herds of Blue Sheep. We will camp at the potato fields of Kambachen (4060m). From here we get spectacular views of Jannu's North Face. Continuing up the Broad valley surrounded by snow clad peaks we camp at the wide flat plateau of Lhonak (4700m). There may be some yak herders camped here in Tibetan style yak-hair tents. We saw a substantial herd of Blue Sheep here last time we visited. On our last day we reach Pangpema, a summer pasture for yak. Here we get our first views of the North Face of Kangchenjunga and put our Base Camp nearby at 5140m. We rest in Base Camp and climb up the grassy-rocky, and occasionally snowy slopes of Tengkongma (6200m) north of BC for fantastic views of Kangchenjunga, and the eastern end of the Himalaya.

Ramthang at sunset. S. Darsney

After several days of resting and hiking around basecamp, and a thorough soaking in Himalayan scenery, we descend to Kathmandu and fly home.

 Day-by-day itinerary for KANGCHENJUNGA TREK     

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