Nepal Traverse 2011
Nepal Traverse - 2011
Expedition: Dutch expedition
Team: Henk Wesselius, Katja Staartjes & Chhiree sherpa. Support was provided by Yubaraj Bam of Darchula for the first 3 weeks, given the quantity of supplies the team had to take.
Goal: By foot from the North-West triple border point to the North-East triple border point, in 3 stages.
Stage I - 2011: successfull. The team went from Darchula to NW triple border point (5,258 m), the start of the Traverse. The end-point of the first stage was Jomsom: 900 km + 55 km climbing and descending further up. Two depots with supplies were sent to Simikot / Yari. After these 2 places the route which was followed by the team was mainly similar to that of the high route of the Great Himalaya Trail.
Exeptional crossings has been made from Chheti to Dhuli (Bajjang) and from Saipalgaon to Yari over mountain ridges up to 5,400 m. The Far West region is unexplored territory for Westerners. The local people profit from every rupee that is spent by tourists. A considerable part of the walk was through uninhabited land, where the team used a tent. In the habited areas they stayed overnight in the homes of local people as much as possible; a unique experience.
After the Humla district the route went to Mugu, one of the poorest areas of Nepal. Just after the rarely-used Yala Pass (5,414 m) and Nyingma Gyanzen Pass (5,563 m) they crossed to Phogaon in Upper Dolpo. All in all an extraordinary traverse at high elevation: the team spent a total of 20 days above 5,000 metres! There were 51 walking days on a total of 60 days.
Daily updates of the trip were only posted on the Dutch page of this website. Sorry!
See Nepal Traverse part I in Google Earth
Click here for a link to the gps-file of the trip made by Katja, Henk & Chhiree in spring 2011. After Yari/Simikot mainly the high route of the Great Himalaya Trail has been followed.
N.B. When you click on 'View Larger Map' you will see the individual gps-points at the leftside of the page with dates and places.
How the dream was born
The idea for the Nepal Traverse arose in December 2008, when Katja and Henk were walking a small trekking in the southern parth of Holland, where is the only Dutch triple border point with Belgium and Germany.“We were suddenly reminded of Nepal and how the country has actually got two triple-border points with the same two neighbours: India and China. Without knowing the elevation of these border points, we came up with the idea for a new expedition: a mega-trek on foot between those two points. Et voila, a new dream was born! The first thing we did when we got home was to get out a map of Nepal to study the two triple-border points. Several maps and sessions on Google-Earth later, we became aware that there was no uniformity of information about their precise location. Read more under Plan Nepal Traverse.
Project 2010
We planned to walk the first stage of the Nepal Traverse in the Autumn of 2010. We intended to do half of the complete project en: from Darchula to Kathmandu. The end would include the regions Mustang, Manaslu, Ganesh and Langtang. The basic question was, what would be the best time? October is usually an ideal month. In September there is more likelihood of rain, in November it is considerablycolder with more chance of snow. Thorough research also indicated that less rain falls in the Far West on average than in the centre of Nepal. We therefore decided that it should just be possible to leave at the beginning of September, realizing that there would be a possibility of downpours in the first couple of weeks. The advantage would be that we would be less bothered by wintery conditions at the end. We put quite a bit of time aside for our trip. Read further under Trekking West-Nepal 2010.
New beginning in 2011
In 2011 we took up our project again after the unfortunate events of the previous Autumn. The duration will be shorter than we had envisaged in 2010. The end-point is no longer Kathmandu, but Jomsom, in the Annapurna region. That is partly because of the monsoon period, and partly because of the time off work that Henk is given by his employers. One way or another, we are thrilled that it is possible for us to renew our journey again so quickly. We will leave with the same team as before: Chhiree sherpa and for the first two weeks, young Yubaraj Bam from Darchula. We will also work again with our partner in Kathmandu: Ngima Dorji sherpa from nepalmyths, who did a superb job last time. We really look forward to our journey and the teamwork again!
N.B. This will be a totally new beginning, also because we are determined to reach the triple-border point. There is one change of route compared to the original plan: we won’t go through the Mustang area. We had hoped to take the 5,700 m high Ghami La pass in November last year from Dolpo to Mustang, but we never got that far...
Crossing this extremely high pass is only permitted after the harvest has been brought in. If you show yourself earlier here, you run the risk of being stoned by local people from Ghami (Mustang). Your arrival would be believed to attract bad spirits, which would increase the possibility of a failed harvest. In view of this rule and our planning for the coming trek, it is impossible for us to cross Ghami La. And since we don’t want to come and go through Mustang, we decided in the end to cut out this northerly section of the route above Jomson completely.
Stimulating tourism in West-Nepal
With our journey we hope to contribute towards increasing awareness of and knowledge about West-Nepal. We are sharing our experience with the SNV organization and the Nepal Great Himalaya Trail project, which is dedicated to developing new areas in Nepal as travel destinations. Ultimately, our intention is to support the progress of the local population.
