TREK IT: NEPAL best trek In the 100th edition of Adventure Travel, Nepal’s tough yet spectacular Dhaulagiri Circuit was named our number one trek in the world. John Hayes couldn’t resist the challenge, but does he think we got it right? Read on to find out… 64 May|June 2014 www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk May|June 2014 65 TREK IT: NEPAL t’s a personal weakness but I'm round it. Perhaps it’s less popular than Who’s writing a sucker for recommendations. I other Nepalese treks as it is that bit In one trip booked a trip to Kanchenjunga after tougher (some even argue that it is the the Dhaulagiri seeing a claim that its base camp toughest three-week trek going). Circuit combines is the most beautiful campsite in the The Dhaulagiri Circuit has all the I Photo: Andy Twigg world, and I did something similar with features of a classic trek in Nepal. everything that Mera Peak after reading that it provides Its standard itinerary consists of makes trekking in After a working life as a the best mountain landscape a trekker 13 trekking days, including two Nepal so special management consultant, will ever experience. Once I saw that acclimatisation days and provision for John Hayes, 58, now spends the Dhaulagiri Circuit was number one contingency. Transit to and from the his life walking and writing about it. In 2011 he became in Adventure Travel’s top 100 treks I was trek typically adds another week to the the first person to finish the caught – hook, line and sinker! total time. Like the Annapurna Circuit E4 long-distance trail from Despite the claim, and despite five the route starts low (1,200m) and heads Tarifa in Spain to Budapest, previous trekking visits to Nepal, up a valley, which it doesn’t leave until a six-month 5,000km trip. I didn’t know anything about the it crosses the French Col at 5,400m John blogs about his trips at Dhaulagiri Circuit before reading into the Hidden Valley. At this point www.johnhayeswalks.com the article in the 100th edition of most people grab the chance of bagging and is currently working Adventure Travel in 2012. I’d seen the a 6,000m peak and climb Dhampus on his first guidebook for Cicerone – the GR1 Sendero beautiful great white mountain that Peak (6,060m) before the final knee- Clockwise from top right: Histórico in Spain. is Dhaulagiri on a trip around the crunching 2,000m descent to Marpha Local girls at Darbang; Avalanche on the Annapurnas, and I knew that it’s the where it joins the Annapurna Circuit. Chhonbardan Glacier; On an acclimatisation walk world’s seventh highest peak, but I had Having done it, what do I think about at Italian Base Camp not logged the fact that you can trek the number one ranking by Adventure Photo: Andy Twigg 66 May|June 2014 www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk May|June 2014 67 TREK IT: NEPAL Sunny spot: a crowded Dhampus Peak Travel? Well, it’s impossible for one increasingly empty landscape. the scenic fireworks continue to Chhonbardan Glacier Camp is conveniently person to judge 100 treks (although I Second, it’s a ‘long burn’ with explode after the base camp with more have done 20 of the top 100) but I can tempting views of the Dhaulagiri amazing places to visit: French Col, the just 60 meters understand how the conclusion was Massif kicking in early on day two, Hidden Valley and Dhampus Peak. over 6,000m – reached. It’s certainly the best of the when you’re still low down among Fourth, the trip has a genuine six treks I’’ve done in Nepal. Why do I the farmers, and getting ever more summit – a challenge that is both perfect if, like think it’s so good? I guess it’s because dramatic as you climb up. Just when intimidating in terms of anticipation me, you spend in one trip it combines everything that you think you have seen the best thing and enormously satisfying if you your life trying to makes trekking in Nepal so special. ever you see something else that tops it. manage to conquer it. Actually with First, it’s a full-blown expedition Third, it takes you into a landscape as Dhaulagiri you get two summits: beat self-inflicted resembling the trips made by early remote and wild as it is beautiful. You French Col, 5,400m, the high point of targets pioneers as they opened up the can argue about Kanchenjunga Base the circuit itself, and Dhampus Peak Himalayas in the 1950s. It has the Camp North versus Dhaulagiri Base which is conveniently just 60 meters classic start, deep down in the farming Camp for the title of most beautiful over 6,000m – perfect if, like me, you villages of the Himalayan foothills campsite in the world. But with spend your life trying to beat self- – terraced hillsides and children Kanchenjunga you turn round and inflicted targets. The summit challenge everywhere – and then climbs through retrace your steps back down the valley takes place towards the end of the trek a series of climate zones into an once you’ve ‘done it.’ With Dhaulagiri avoiding the anti-climax that can be Big scenery: leaving Italian Base Camp Photo: Andy Twigg experienced when the highlight of the trip is in the middle. THINGS YOU Finally, like all the great trips to 4 PROBABLY Nepal, it’s a true adventure. It takes DIDN’T KNOW you to places beyond the imagination ABOUT of most folks back home, forces you to confront your own physical and DhAULAGIRI mental limitations, and hits you with 1 Known as the White Mountain, at the unexpected. And if, like me, you 8,167m, Dhaulagiri is the seventh- have seen the best of your 50s then it highest peak in the world. is simply life affirming and feeds an 2 Dhaulagiri was first climbed in 1960, appetite to do more. by four members of a Swiss Austrian Of course a trip like this is not all team and two Sherpas. plain sailing. We had bad weather at the 3 Sixty-nine climbers have died on Dhaulagiri’s slopes, including 10 mem- beginning and were met, as we went bers of an 11-strong American team up, with a stream of trekkers coming in 1969. At the time it was the worst the other way. Some had been stranded ever Nepalese climbing disaster. higher up for days and had eventually 4 The highest point on the Dhaulagiri turned round. There was a lot more Circuit is the French Col at 5,400m. It snow on the route than ‘normal’ and gets its name from a 1950 expedition it seemed unlikely that we would that arrived there via the Hidden Val- ley before turning back and climbing complete the circuit. With the prospect Annapurna instead of Dhaulagiri. The of turning round and returning the expedition was the first to summit an way we had come, and a cold tent full of 8,000m peak. Caption here damp gear, for a time it was falling well 68 May|June 2014 www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk www.adventuretravelmagazine.co.uk May|June 2014 69 TREK IT: NEPAL Woman power: bringing in the harvest My nerves weren’t helped by the EASIER TREKS list of gear I was expected to take. IN NEPAL This trek attracted more climbers 3 than any treks I’ve done in the past Never trekked in the Himalaya before? Here are some terrific options for first-timers – I’ve done a lot of high-altitude trekking but I’m not a climber – but 1 Manaslu Circuit reassuringly for me, when we all met This is being billed as the ‘new’ Annapurna in the bar at Heathrow airport, I was Circuit, as a road has changed the Annapurna not the only person with an excessive trek. The three-week trek around Manaslu, amount of grey hair. the world’s eighth highest mountain, is on The group consisted of 10 men and terrain that isn’t difficult, but challenges come from its length and altitude. The re- two women. Two were the wrong wards are stunning views of Himalayan side of 60, six were in their 50s, two giants on the Nepal/Tibet border, and a in their 40s and there was a couple varied route through villages, past Buddhist in their 30s. I’ve never had a bad monasteries and over high passes. Look out trekking group, but you always have for a full article on the Manaslu Circuit in the next edition of Adventure Travel. Just when you think short of its best trek billing. you have seen the Perversely the bad weather made the good weather feel even better when it best thing ever you arrived. We ended up with a perfect see something else six-day window of blue, cloudless skies that tops it to complete the final part of the trip. The weather wasn’t just good, it was more fun when everyone gels, like fantastic. There was still more snow we did. We all got round the circuit than normal, which made for a harder although one of the guys found it The Manaslu Massif climb, but fresh snow only added to particularly tough and suffered from a 2 Langtang Valley what was truly awesome scenery. bad cold and food poisoning. Eight of To the north of Kathmandu, on the border The Dhaulagiri Circuit does have us made it to the top of Dhampus, and with Tibet, the Langtang Valley, or ‘valley of a reputation for bad weather but I’m interestingly the four that didn’t were the glaciers,’ sees fewer visitors than many struggling to establish if it’s justified.