- A circuit of Yunnan`s great snow mountain
- A rarely visited Tibetan world
- Classic trekking at the eastern end of the Himalayas
- Lijiang and its Naxi people
- `Explore More` - the finest adventure holidays on the planet
Rising above the mighty Mekong and Yangtze rivers, we trek on the formidable mountain massif of Kawa Karpo includes more than a dozen 6000 metre peaks and culminates at the summit of the unclimbed Kagebo (6740m). Sacred to Tibetan Buddhist people, this remote range is circled by a pilgrimage route or 'kora' that negotiates deep forested valleys, crosses high passes and visits hot springs, isolated villages and many sacred sites. Our 11-day exploratory trek follows this route and allows us an insight into a rarely seen Tibetan enclave, formerly part of the kingdom of Kham. Accessed via Kunming, this fantastic travel experience also allows us to marvel at the great gorge of the Yangtze, to spend time at the monastic complexes of Zhongdian and Tongtolin and to walk amongst the waterways and ancient wooden houses of Lijiang. A new and exciting challenge for experienced trekkers!
This trip is one of our ‘Explore More' range of outstanding adventure holidays which we are running in conjunction with our friends at Allibert and Hauser (France and Germany's leading adventure travel operators). The trips we have chosen for this range are undoubtedly some of the finest adventures on the planet. They are also ‘specialist' and will appeal to those who have ‘been there, done that' in many parts of the world and are now looking for something new. The cosmopolitan nature of the groups will be an important part of the Explore More experience!
Trip Guide
This exciting journey into the Chinese province of Yunnan, traverses some very remote country, en route to the start of our trek. Internal flights in to Zhongdian and back from Lijiang limit the amount of road travel that we have to undertake. But, we still have a couple of long days of driving on sometimes rough roads. At the eastern edge of Tibet, this part of the world is at a generally high altitude. We fly to Zhongdian (c.3300m) and drive over 4000 metre passes to Deqing, which is at a similar height to Zhongdian. We then set off on trek. Although we cross several 4000-metre passes during the trek, the height of our camps is generally at around 3000 metres. Altitude should not play a major role in influencing the difficulty of this trip. However, this is a fairly sustained trek and does include some long days with significant amounts of ascent and descent. The crux of the trip is the crossing of the Tagu La and then the Shu La, which each involves around 1800 metres of ascent. Thankfully, there is a very short 'rest' day between these two very long long days. The trip fully deserves its DEMANDING grade.
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