Langtang Gosainkunda Circuit Trek

That one walks up to the lakes and comes back down the same trail to Dhunche for the bus. This one does not come back. From Gosainkunda you cross the Laurebina La at 4,610 m and drop into a third valley, Helambu, then walk south along the ridges for three more days and finish at Sundarijal, an hour from the hotel. Four extra days, one pass, no repeated ground at the end.

Fit enough for thirteen walking days in a row, five to seven hours most of them and eight on two. The pass day and the Kutumsang day are the ones to train for. If you can walk six hours in hills at home, sleep, and do five hours again the next morning without dreading it, you are ready for this.

It is a good second one. The Langtang valley on its own is an excellent first trek, and this is that trek with a 4,610 m pass and a week of ridge walking bolted on the end. If you have never slept above 3,500 m, do the valley first and come back for the circuit.

Twelve is the youngest we take on this one, against ten on the valley trek, and we would want to talk to you first. The pass day is long and cold and there is no easy way off it once you start down the far side. A strong fourteen year old who walks with you at home will be fine.

A long day rather than a hard climb. Two hours up from the lake on boulders and old snow to 4,610 m, thin air, usually a cold wind at the top, then 1,200 m of descent on loose rock that takes four or five hours. No rope, no crampons in a normal season, no exposure. Start at six, be over by nine.

We do not force it. Fresh snow, ice on the traverse below the pass or poor visibility, and the guide turns the party round at the lake and walks you back down to Dhunche for the bus, which is the shorter Gosainkunda trek. It happens most often in January and February, in early December, and after a late spring storm. You lose the Helambu half, not the trip, and we refund the unused lodge and transport costs.

Not in October, November, March, April or May in a normal year. Microspikes are worth the two hundred grams in any month, and in early December or late February we carry them for the group as a matter of course. If conditions genuinely need an axe, they are conditions we should not be crossing in.

The usual published figure is 4,610 m and that is what we use. GPS units on the day often read 4,630 to 4,650 m, and some operators quote the higher number, which is why the pages disagree. The viewpoint above Gosainkunda that you climb on the rest day is about the same height, which is deliberate.

Because the profile is otherwise wrong. You sleep at 4,380 m and cross 4,610 m the following morning after three days of steep climbing from 2,250 m. The spare day at the lake lets you walk up to the viewpoint at pass height and come back down to sleep, which is the classic climb high, sleep low answer to exactly this problem.

Day 11, Sing Gompa to Gosainkunda, which gains about 1,050 m in one go to sleep at 4,380 m. That is more than we would normally accept, and it is why the Langtang half comes first: by then you have already slept six nights above 2,400 m and two at 3,870 m, which is real acclimatisation rather than a token.

Helicopter rescue to 5,000 m, because Tserko Ri is 4,984 m. It is a condition of booking and we ask to see the certificate. A flight out from Kyanjin or from the lakes is short, forty minutes or so, and still runs to $2,500 to $4,000, and the aircraft will not lift without a guarantee of payment.

On 25 April 2015 the earthquake sheared a hanging block of ice and rock off Langtang Lirung. The debris and the air blast it pushed ahead of it buried almost the whole village. The official toll for the valley is 306 dead, including 175 of the roughly 370 locals present, 82 Nepalis from elsewhere and 49 foreign trekkers. Local people believe the real number is higher. The valley is safe to walk today and the ground is no more hazardous than any other Himalayan valley.

About half an hour of grey boulder field where the old village stood, crossed by the trail, with memorial stones and mani walls carved with names at the far side. The village standing now was rebuilt a little further up the valley by the families who survived, largely with their own labour and with money that came back through trekking. Go past the memorial quietly and do not photograph anyone at it.

Yes, and mostly better than they were. Kyanjin Gompa now has the best lodges on this whole circuit, with hot showers and micro-hydro power, and the cheese factory built with Swiss help in 1955 was rebuilt with Swiss help again. Where you spend your money in this valley matters more than it does in most places.

Hindus hold that Shiva struck the mountain with his trident to make water after swallowing the poison churned from the ocean, and that he lies beneath the rock you can see in the lake. It is one of a chain said to number 108 and is a Ramsar wetland site. Both Hindus and Buddhists come here, which is unusual and very Nepali.

On the August full moon tens of thousands of pilgrims climb to the lake in a few days, many of them overnight and some barefoot, to bathe and to change the sacred thread. It is extraordinary and it is a terrible week to be looking for a bed. We do not run the circuit then, both for the crowds and because the pass is in monsoon cloud.

We think so, and it is the quietest walking of the trip. Ridge after ridge of fir and moss, Sherpa and Tamang villages that see a fraction of the trekkers Langtang does, and a finish on foot within an hour of your hotel. It is also the part people most often underestimate: three long days with a lot of up in them.

Langtang has the best of them, most rebuilt since 2015, with hot showers and micro-hydro power. Gosainkunda is basic and cold and the water freezes. Helambu is simple but warm and cheap, with fewer beds per village, so we send the guide ahead. Ghopte is the roughest night on the trek and the most memorable.

Day 15, Kutumsang to Chisapani. Sixteen kilometres, three ridge saddles, about 1,300 m of climbing and 1,600 m of descent, at the end of a fortnight. Nobody writes it up because it is only 2,200 m and there is no mountain to name. It is still the day most people remember as the long one.

Good as far as Kyanjin Gompa, which is one of the better connected valleys in Nepal, then nothing worth having between Laurebina Yak and Tharepati. Helambu is back on the network and Chisapani has a signal from the Kathmandu valley. Buy an Ncell or NTC SIM in Kathmandu on day 2.

Seven to eight hours for 122 km, more hairpins than straights, and a few kilometres of unsealed landslide ground before Dhunche in every season. It is the least enjoyable part of the trip. A private jeep instead of the tourist bus costs $110 and is money well spent, and it is only one drive here rather than two, because you walk out at the other end.

The flood of 26 August 2026 came down the Bhote Koshi from the border, north of where you trek, and it did severe damage at Timure and Rasuwagadhi and along the Trishuli below. The trekking route up the Langtang Khola and over to Gosainkunda is a different drainage. Road access changes week by week while repairs go on, and we tell you the position for your dates before you pay anything.

Three things: the Langtang National Park entry permit at NPR 3,000, a TIMS card at NPR 2,000, and the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park permit at NPR 1,000 because you walk out through that park to Sundarijal. All three are included and we arrange them. There is no restricted area permit on this route.

Five extra days of guide, porters, lodges and food, a third permit, and a second big climb. That is most of the $400 difference. Nobody is being paid a different rate: our Langtang guide and porter rates are the same on every trek in this region, and the drive is actually cheaper here because there is only one of them.

Two hundred to three hundred dollars in rupees, in small notes. There is a cash machine at Dhunche and you should not rely on it. Nothing above Thulo Syabru takes a card, prices at Gosainkunda are the highest on the route because everything is carried up from Sing Gompa, and Helambu is the cheapest walking in the catalogue.

October and early November first, then late March and April. October gives you the most reliable pass conditions and the clearest air. April trades a little haze for rhododendron in the lower gorge and warmer nights in Helambu. May works but builds cloud by mid-afternoon, and December is for people who want the lakes frozen and are relaxed about turning back.

Ten days is comfortable and five has been done. Nothing here hangs on a flight seat. The limits are the TIMS card, which has to come through us and takes a working day, and lodge space at Gosainkunda and Ghopte in late October, where there are not many beds and we prefer to book ahead.

Yes, and a few people prefer it: start walking at Sundarijal, climb the Helambu ridges, cross the pass westwards and finish up the Langtang valley with a drive home. It acclimatises you more gently and it puts the best scenery at the end. It also means the pass is on day 8 rather than day 13, with less margin if the weather turns.