Every day’s distance and ascent, published
So you can judge a trip against your own legs rather than against an adjective. Eight walkers, two guides, and one price with nothing added at the trailhead.
Three trips, run repeatedly
The same three routes, walked twenty times each. A company with forty itineraries has walked most of them twice.
Four days, low
11–14 km a day, 400–700 m of ascent, sleeping between 1,800 and 2,200 m. The one to start with, and the one most people come back for.
Six days, mid
14–18 km a day with two 900 m ascents, sleeping to 3,100 m. Two hard days in the middle and we will tell you which they are before you book.
Nine days, high
Two passes over 4,000 m with an acclimatisation day that is not optional. Run four times a year and cancelled outright if the weather is wrong.
What a day actually looks like
A middle day on the six-day trip. Published because "moderate" means nothing and this does.
Tea, and the forecast
Read out, including when it is bad. About one day in nine on the high trip is changed at this point, and that decision is the guides’ rather than a vote.
Walking
Four hours to lunch, at the pace of the slowest person. That is not a courtesy — a group that splits is a group with one guide in two places.
Lunch, carried
Cooked that morning and carried. No lodge lunches, because a lodge decides where you stop and the terrain should.
Two or three hours more
The afternoon is shorter than the morning on every day of every trip. It is when people turn ankles.
In, and the next day explained
Distance, ascent and the two places it will be hard, before dinner rather than at breakfast. Somebody usually decides to take the lower route, and that is a normal thing to do.
One price, per trip
Everything from Dharamshala and back. There is no single supplement, no equipment hire desk and no tipping expectation — the guides are paid properly and it is in the figure.
Four days, low
Everything from Dharamshala and back to it.
- ✓Three nights, twin or single at no extra cost
- ✓All meals including carried lunches
- ✓Two guides
- ✓Transfers from Dharamshala
- ✓Evacuation cover
Six days, mid
The trip most people take second.
- ✓Five nights, twin or single at no extra cost
- ✓All meals including carried lunches
- ✓Two guides
- ✓Transfers from Dharamshala
- ✓Evacuation cover
- ✓A rest afternoon on day four
Nine days, high
Four departures a year, and cancelled outright if the weather is wrong.
- ✓Eight nights, twin or single at no extra cost
- ✓All meals including carried lunches
- ✓Two guides and a third above 4,000 m
- ✓Transfers from Dharamshala
- ✓Evacuation cover
- ✓A non-optional acclimatisation day
- ✓Full refund if we cancel, at any notice
The kind of ground
Terrain rather than destinations. A photograph captioned with a place we go is a promise about a view, and weather makes that a promise nobody can keep.
Before you book
Four answers, and the first is the only honest one to a question we get weekly.
Am I fit enough?
Look at the distance and the ascent for each day rather than at the word "moderate". If you can walk 14 km with 700 m of ascent on consecutive days at home, the low trip is comfortable. If you cannot, it will not be, and no amount of enthusiasm changes that in the second week.
What if the weather turns?
The guides change the day, and it is their decision rather than the group’s. On the high trip we cancel departures outright — four a year go out and we have called off two in the past three years, with a full refund at whatever notice.
Is there a single supplement?
No. A single room costs the same as sharing, on every trip. It is the commonest hidden charge in this trade and we would rather price it into everybody’s trip than surprise the people travelling alone.
What about tipping?
There is no expectation and the guides are paid a proper wage out of the price. Tip if you want to and please do not feel a system is running underneath the one on this page.
Telephone before you book anything
Twenty minutes about what you have walked before. Roughly one caller in five is told a different trip, and one in twenty that none of ours suits them this year.
