Inner Dolpo Trek is one of the most utterly remote and challenging trekking destinations, the high Tibetan valleys are sealed off from the rest of the country by mountain passes over 17,000 feet high, and its people exist in a time warp of Tibetan culture little changed in a thousand years. This is the land of rare Bon monasteries (Bon is the ancient pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet) and the region where we find remote Shey Gompa and Crystal Mountain, both so beautifully described in Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard. Parts of this trek are also featured in Himalayan Pilgrimage, by the renowned scholar David Snellgrove, and in the movie Himalaya.
This trek is high, tough, and 21 days long, following ancient trading routes to the Tibetan border. Trekking over high passes and steep valleys, through villages and monasteries that were once very powerful, we’ll reach the Kali Gandaki Valley at the border with Mustang. We make our way back to Pokhara on one of the most scenic flights in the Himalaya, taking a breath and reflecting on the beauty and power of our journey.