Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [191]
Day 9: Pemi to Taupang
21km / 7-8 hours / 1450m ascent, 1450m descent
The trail stays in damp, cold forest, with occasional summer pastures with bamboo herders’ shelters. The climb goes on and on, but the area is a botanist’s delight, with shrubs of every kind, pungent with a sweet fermented smell, thick with humus. The next stretch of trail traverses nine passes, nicknamed the Nine Sisters, the highest of which is Dong La (3900m). Cross several ridges to Dong La, where there are good mountain views and a few prayer flags on a pile of rocks.
Cross the remaining ridges, each adorned with prayer flags, and descend steeply through thick evergreen forests on a trail strewn with rocks, logs and slippery leaves to a ridge-top meadow called Lisipang. The last part of the trek starts easily enough, turning right and down through a pasture at Yesupang, but then becomes increasingly rocky and muddy as it nears the Dongdi Chhu. There’s no bridge, so you either rock- hop across or, if you’re lucky, find a tree trunk balanced on rocks.
The path on the other side of the river is even muddier and rockier; parts of it are layered with a makeshift washboard-style log path. It’s more like jungle than forest here, with ferns and creepers above and the river roaring nearby. The camp is at Taupang (2450m), a clearing in the forest with a wooden cowherds’ shelter.
Day 10: Taupang to Trashi Yangtse
24km / 8-9 hours / 720m descent
The path through the forest beside the river is damp and muddy with huge ferns, red-berried palms and occasional leeches. The forest is alive with birds and monkeys. Two hours of sloshing through mud or springing from stone to log to stone brings you to Shakshing, a cluster of houses on the hillside, surrounded by corn and millet fields, banana trees and grazing cows.
The trail stays on the ridge on the northern side of the valley, passing above the village of Tongshing. It then descends past some swampy areas and crosses to the southern bank of the Dongdi Chhu on a large bridge. The small, old Trashi Yangtse dzong suddenly appears at the end of the valley on a hill top above the river. The trail crosses back to the north side of the river below the dzong on an old cantilever bridge. Finally cross the Kulong Chhu at 1730m where, with luck, your vehicles will be waiting, or climb to the road and walk 3km into Chorten Kora.
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SNOWMAN TREK
The combination of distance, altitude, remoteness and weather makes this a tough journey, and when trekking fees were set at US$200 a night, it suffered a sharp decline in the number of trekkers who attempt it. Even though there are reduced rates for long treks, few people can afford a 25-day trek for US$4280.
If you plan to trek this route, double-check your emergency evacuation insurance (Click here). If you get into Lunana and snow blocks the passes, the only way out is by helicopter, an expensive way to finish an already expensive trek. Another obstacle that often hampers this trek is bridges in remote regions that get washed away.
The Snowman trek is frequently closed because of snow, and is impossible to undertake during winter. The season for this trek is generally considered to be from late September to mid-October. Don’t plan a summer trek; this is a miserable place to be during the monsoon.
This classic trek follows the Jhomolhari and Laya–Gasa treks to Laya. Many walking days can be saved by starting in Tashithang and trekking north up the Mo Chhu, following the Laya–Gasa trek in reverse.
Days 1 to 5: Drukgyel Dzong to Lingzhi
Follow Days 1 to 5 of the Jhomolhari trek (Click here).
Days 6 to 10: Lingzhi to Laya
Follow Days 6 to 10 of the Laya–Gasa trek (Click here).
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THE TREK AT A GLANCE
Duration