Upper Mustang loop - Horizon Guides

Best trek for: More exciting version of the Upper Mustang 'standard' route
Difficulty: Moderate-difficult
Trek duration: 12 days
Max. elevation: 4,380mm
Accommodation: Homestays
Start/end point: Kagbeni/Kagbeni or Muktinath

In my experience the 12-day Upper Mustang loop is far more rewarding (but longer) than the standard Upper Mustang trek. The first part of the trek to Lo Manthang follows the standard way up the western side of the Kali Gandaki. For the return though you follow a much wilder route down the eastern side of the Kali Gandaki. There’s much less development on this side of the river and no road construction. I find the villages tend to be more traditional and there are fewer trekkers. The scenery is also more impressive than the western route, but the walking is tougher, fresh water harder to find, and villages more spaced out with some long days of walking.

At a glance

Destinations

Upper Mustang

Activity

Adventure, Hiking & Trekking, Active, Walking, Nature & Wildlife, Culture, Solo Travel

Physical Level

Moderate

Duration

12 days

Related Guides

Guide

Trekking in Nepal

Stuart Butler

I clearly remember the day, thirty years ago, when walking down the street during my first visit to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, I looked up at the clouds towering above the northern end of the city and it suddenly hit me that they weren’t clouds at all but were the snow-capped peaks of the mighty Himalaya. A week later, and after three long days of walking, I stood within a giant amphitheatre of rock and ice, totally enveloped by those same mountains.

Stuart Butler

Stuart is an award-winning travel journalist and guidebook author who has been visiting and trekking in Nepal for over thirty years. One of the world's leading authorities on Nepal trekking, he is the author of Lonely Planet’s Trekking in Nepal, the Rough Guide to Nepal, the Tibet chapter of the Rough Guide to China and the Bradt guide to Kashmir & Ladakh. He is also regularly published in The Independent, BBC, Time Out, The Telegraph, among many other UK and international publications.