Upper and Lower Dolpo trek

Thank you for making me relive this trip! below my impressions

Period of global confinement for over a year, I miss Nepal, too much risk of problems organizing a trip with friends, for uncertainty is part of the trip and I have been dreaming of the Mugu Dolpo junction by the 3 passes for a long time ... a few emails with Jerome then Fabian shows me that Nepal is on standby due to lack of visitors but only asks to welcome me ... the organization remains more open than usual given the permanent changes in regulations from the Nepalese government which manages the aftermath of the first wave of Covid which was not very strong but paralyzed the important tourist activity of the country. I take my ticket with Base Camp to more easily manage possible cancellations. The project is set up with Game and a porter, Aresh with whom he gets along well and who has already done the route. The idea; keep it simple, eat and sleep at the locals' house, and when there is no more housing, go camping by buying the necessary food at a Nepalese campsite in the last village. For the Guyanese that I am, we have to manage the Brazilian variant which isolates Guyana from the mainland (I spent the week before the implementation of a well-controlled 10-day quarantine) mainland France is confined, so family contacts and shopping before departure are limited. 4 PCR in a few days (departure from Guyana, arrival in mainland France, departure in mainland France and arrival in Kathmandu!) no nasal haemorrhage! Kathmandu is waiting for the Indian variant to overflow and is slowly but surely closing its structures, quick departure for Simikot via Nepalgung, the Indian border confined ++, and domestic and international flights close a few days after our sigh of relief to be on the roads. Game and Aresh are confined, unemployed for several months and are as happy as I am to be confined on a path of more than 400 km ... the good mood is general and we are aware of our luck. It snowed heavily some time before our arrival and we were faced with snow as soon as we passed the first pass at 4000 at Marcolake, with 500 m of elevation gain to do. Fortunately, the first pass at 5000 is more than a week later which will allow the snow to melt partly. The weather is unstable and we will spend Chiargo there in the storm. The paths under the snow are much more difficult and tiring. The 2nd pass, the yala la is steep and fortunately passed under the sun. The gyansen la is again passed in the storm after a climb in deep soft snow at 30 degrees; several kilometres above 5000 in the wind and snow before descending on pho with the emotion of finding living beings after 5 days alone and 3 passes at more than 5000. We understood that the passes above 5000 are not very passable and do not go through bijer, preferring a long crossing between pho and saldang at around 4600 of 2 days. Saldang, Shimen, Tinku, Charka sees drier weather and tracks accessible to motorcycles, which make the hike less pleasant, new episode of bad weather at Yak Karka with a fantastic encounter with the yaks of Charka in the pastures. The passage of the Tudje is difficult with 30 cm of fresh snow and fog. Fortunately, a pregnant woman passes on horseback to go to a consultation in Jomson and she confirms the right path for us ... arrival in Sangdak where the village council decides to close the village the next day for foreigners for the corona ... it is in the fog that we return to Jomson where a strict confinement is in place. Fortunately the Himalaya hotel knows us and welcomes us. No more theft, so 4/4 to Pokhara and taxi to Kathmandu without stopping in Pokhara, we feel that Nepal is blocked .. we have to act quickly. Control at each village with law enforcement officers not happy to see us on the road. Arrival at the Manaslu hotel in Kathmandu where a few tourists are waiting to leave. No more international flights, but flights are chartered especially to get tourists out of the country (they come empty-handed) stressful atmosphere at the travel agency, with Shiva or Radju from base camp who were seen every day for a possible ticket without success, on foot... another Swiss tourist is in the same situation as me and was able to find out from his embassy that passengers would be PCR +. we go to the agency which is not aware, and raju leaves his telephone number saying that we will have done our pcr if the places become available… the next morning, the agency calls raju and we go to get the tickets for the same evening on Turkish… our pcr is negative…

in total a stay humla rara mugu and Dolpo, 470 km and 25000 m of d+ and -, a lot of contacts with the inhabitants thanks to game and aresh, with the natural hospitality of mountain dwellers, environments between 2000 and 5500 altitude and therefore geographically very different,