Nepal 2025 - Day 10: Dharamsala to Bhimtang via Larkye La
Crossing Larkye Pass
We had crashed early the previous night after an early dinner, however, due to the continuous rain, I could barely get any sleep.
We gathered in the dining hall at 3.30 for porridge, however, it was difficult to even eat a spoon of it. The boys I had praised so highly yesterday probably made porridge in bulk in the same vessels some of the other dishes were made and reeked of a burnt taste and smell. I could see many just leaving their bowls as is. I was anyway not hungry and was eager to get on the trail. We knew it would be a tough start as the trail would be slippery and it was still drizzling which made the vision blurry. The idea was to just follow the headlamp ahead of you and just be slow and steady till the rain stopped or the sun appeared.
We left Dharamsala around 4 and the rain also started to subside. The trail began just behind our dining hall so it was easy to make progress on it. The initial climb was gentle and I was barely even looking up due to the thick fog. It was bitterly cold when we started so we had drop layers once we climbed up the hill. Our breaks took care of themselves as the sun broke through just enough to stow our headlamps. The snow started to get thicker and the rocky terrain turned a little slushy.
At the break of dawn, the mountains surrounding us revealed themselves and the mighty Larkya glacier showed itself. Unfortunately, the cloud cover hid most of the peaks from us, however, we were glad that the sun was making it's way out strongly. We reached a small tea shop, took a break there, admired the surrounding landscape before heading back out on the trail. We saw bright sun up ahead, however, there were thick and dark clouds closing in from below the valley. That was an indication for us to move quickly through the steep terrain.
After climbing another 2kms, we reached a boulder section with 3-4 frozen lakes ahead of it. We could barely see the lakes through the snow, however, it made for a very pretty picture. We ensured we didn't walk on the lake and just crossed it via the boulder section. There was a climb of another 30 mins before we saw prayer flags marking the pass. We took a final break before the final push towards the pass and grabbed a quick bite and hydrated ourselves.
We could see the clouds closing in from behind and had to be quick to get to a lower elevation as soon as possible. The descend was steep and with the snow, a little slippery and slushy. Going down to the Manang region through the glacial terrain was very scenic. We saw a couple of small lakes and I guessed one of them could have been Pankar Tal as depicted on my map. The Pankar glacier was immediately towards our right and looked huge from our perspective.
After crossing the glacial section, the terrain became very easy but still long. It was a good test for your knees. Soon, we stopped at a small settlement called Bhimtang Phedi which had a couple of teahouses offering lunch. We had some noodle soup before continuing on the long descent to Bhimtang. We finally saw the colourful village of Bhimtang in the distance and reached our teahouse by 3pm. It was a very pretty village nestled amongst the peaks of Manslu, Thulagi to it's north and Nimjung and Cheo to it's south. The teahouses were painted in bright colours with smoke emanating from their chimneys made it a beautiful setting to relax for the day.
Jangbu informed us about a change of plans. Instead of trekking to our rest stop of Dharapani, we would now board a taxi from Tilche to Besisahar. He informed us that there was a lot of construction post Tilche and the roads were muddy. We all agreed to this change.
Sonam and I had a quick bite to eat at our teahouse before exploring the village and just spending time talking about the day and what we had accomplished in the past 10 days. It was the perfect ending to a magnificent day!
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