Yala Peak Climbing – 11 Days

Your flight lands at Tribhuvan International Airport, where someone from our team meets you outside arrivals. It’s a 20–30 minute drive through Kathmandu’s busy streets to your hotel. The city sits in a wide valley at about 1,400 m, so the air feels mild after a long flight.

In the afternoon your guide comes to the hotel for a briefing. You go through the route day by day, check your boots, warm clothing and the climbing kit for Yala, and hand over your passport details so the permits can be prepared.

If anything is missing, Thamel, Kathmandu’s trekking district, has shops that rent and sell boots, crampons, down jackets and sleeping bags. Have an early dinner, as tomorrow’s drive takes most of the day.

You leave Kathmandu after breakfast in a shared jeep and head north out of the valley, then down to Trishuli Bazaar, the headquarters of Nuwakot district, before following the Trishuli River upstream into Rasuwa. The road climbs in long bends past terraced fields and small roadside towns.

After Betrawati it climbs steeply to Dhunche, the district headquarters of Rasuwa, where your national park permit is checked. On a clear day you may see the first snow peaks from the road.

The last stretch runs along the hillside to Thulo Syabru (2,210 m), a Tamang village of stone and timber houses spread along a ridge. Since the 2026 flood badly damaged Syabrubesi, down by the Bhote Koshi, this trip starts here. Expect 7–8 hours of driving with some narrow, bumpy sections, so bring travel sickness tablets if you need them.

After breakfast you leave Thulo Syabru and drop into the valley of the Langtang Khola. From here the river is your guide: you follow it upstream for the next three days.

The trail mixes stone steps, roots and dirt path through thick forest of oak, maple, pine and rhododendron, with stands of bamboo near the river. It’s shady and often humid, so a light layer is enough while you walk, but the steep steps at the start are hard on the knees.

All of this forest lies inside Langtang National Park, set up in 1976 as Nepal’s first Himalayan national park. Grey langur monkeys often move through the treetops, and red pandas live here too, though very few trekkers see one. Listen for birds; the danphe, Nepal’s colourful national bird, lives in these hills.

Past Rimche, a short climb brings you to Lama Hotel, a few lodges in a forest clearing. The trees hide the snow peaks today, so the evening is for rest: a warm dining room, a plate of dal bhat and an early night.

The trail keeps climbing beside the Langtang Khola through tall forest. In places the river is loud and close; elsewhere the path climbs high above it on stone steps. After a couple of hours, gaps in the trees give your first views of Langtang Lirung, the highest peak in the national park at over 7,200 m.

Around Ghoda Tabela, whose name means “horse stable”, the forest thins and the valley changes completely. It becomes wide and open, with yak pastures, stone walls and the first prayer flags. Your permit may be checked again at the post here.

The climb to Langtang village at 3,430 m is gentle but long, and you’ll notice the thinner air on every small rise. The old village was buried by an avalanche set off by the April 2015 earthquake. The Langtangpa people came back and rebuilt, and tonight you stay in one of their lodges.

Walk slowly, drink plenty of tea and water, and take a short stroll before dinner to help your body adjust.

A short walk of 3–4 hours today. The path climbs gently up the open valley past chortens, long mani walls carved with Buddhist prayers and small prayer wheels turned by streams, through the hamlet of Mundu.

Kyanjin Gompa, at 3,870 m, is the highest settlement in the Langtang valley: a cluster of lodges and stone houses below glaciers and peaks. Its monastery is said to be about 700 years old, and the village cheese factory has been making yak cheese since the 1950s. A slice of it with fresh bread is a good reward.

Spend the afternoon resting, then walk a little way up the slope behind the village to help your body adjust. Nights here are cold, often below freezing, so wear your down jacket in the evening. You’ll sleep at or above this height for the next three nights.

An acclimatization day with a purpose. After breakfast you climb the steep, grassy slope behind the village to Kyanjin Ri. The path gains about 900 m, and at the top the air holds only a little over half the oxygen it does at sea level, so take it slowly and stop often.

Kyanjin Ri has two tops. Many people stop at the lower one; the higher summit, at 4,773 m, is about another hour along the ridge. From either, the view goes all the way round: Langtang Lirung and its glaciers close by, Gangchenpo across the valley, and the snowy slopes of Yala Peak, your goal, further up the valley.

You’re back in Kyanjin by lunchtime. In the afternoon your guide checks your climbing gear and goes through the plan for the next two days, including what to wear on summit morning.

Today the trail leaves the floor of the valley and climbs steadily across open hillside to Yala Kharka. Kharka means pasture in Nepali, and in the warmer months herders bring their yaks up to graze here.

Base camp is set up near Yala Kharka at about 4,600 m, after 3–4 hours of walking. With the afternoon free, your climbing guide explains the route, makes sure your boots and crampons fit and, if there’s snow, practises walking in crampons with you on a nearby slope.

Dinner is early. It gets cold as soon as the sun drops behind the ridges, and you’ll be up before 3 am, so get into your sleeping bag as early as you can.

The alarm goes before 3. After hot tea and a light breakfast in the dark, you follow your guide’s headlamp up the rocky slopes above Yala Kharka. At this height the air holds about half the oxygen it does at sea level, so you move slowly and breathe hard on every step.

Higher up the route crosses snow. If it’s firm or icy, you stop to put on crampons. The normal route needs no fixed ropes, but the last slopes are steep and need care. Most climbers reach the top in about 4–5 hours.

On a clear morning the view is the reward. Shishapangma (8,027 m), the lowest of the world’s 8,000 m peaks and the only one entirely in Tibet, rises across the border, with Langtang Lirung, Dorje Lakpa and the Ganesh Himal around you.

Then it’s back to camp for a hot drink and a long walk down past Kyanjin Gompa to Langtang village. Your legs will feel it, but sleeping some 2,000 m lower helps you recover quickly. If the weather turns or the snow isn’t safe, your guide turns the group around, whatever the time.

The longest walking day of the trip, 8–9 hours, but almost all of it downhill. You retrace your steps through Ghoda Tabela and back into the forest, and the river gets louder as you lose height.

Lunch is usually at Lama Hotel or Rimche. After that the trail follows the Langtang Khola down before a final climb up to Thulo Syabru on its ridge. The stone steps are tough on tired legs, so use your poles and take short steps.

It’s the last night of the trek, and a good evening to share a meal with your guides and porters and thank them for their help on the mountain.

After breakfast a shared jeep takes you back down through Dhunche and the Trishuli valley to Kathmandu, 7–8 hours depending on the road. Some sections were still being repaired after the 2026 floods, so short delays are possible.

You should reach Kathmandu in the late afternoon, in time for a hot shower before the farewell dinner, where you can swap summit stories with your crew.

Your trip ends today. After breakfast, our driver takes you to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before your flight.

If you have more time, Pokhara, Chitwan National Park and the old palace squares of the Kathmandu valley are all easy to add.