Rolwaling ~ Tsho Rolpa, Nepal’s Biggest Glacier Lake

Kathmandu is the starting point for this trek with 9 -10 hrs driving time. The road from Kathmandu to Lamosangu is excellent. The road from Lamosangu to Charikot is in very bad shape and the road from Charikot to Chhetchhet is okay but it is a gravel road. Chhetchhet is a tiny village with one local village style lodge. If we arrive early at Chhetchhet, we can go to Simi Guan (2036m) for better accommodation. The walking trail to Simi Guan is a 659m, 2.5 hour direct climb.

Half hour climb from Simi towards Dongang before descending towards the Rowaling River, we will have good view of Gaurishankar Himal (7134m), Rowaling Himal and many more. From this point trail descends to Rowaling River and the trail follow this river till the end of our trek. Source of this river is Tsho Rolpa Lake (4540m) which is our last destination. We will stop at Surmuche village for lunch. From Surmuche the trail gently ascends to Dongang (2791m). Two small lodges surrounded by beautiful forest at the bank of the Rowaling River. Spend a night here.

Trail gently ascends towards Beding along the Rowaling River, stop at Thangthing Kharka for lunch. Beding is the largest Sherpa village in this area with a beautiful monastery but most of the houses were damaged by earthquake. So most of the villagers moved to Kathmandu and have not yet returned to village. However good accommodation available here.

Early morning visit to monastery and trek to Na (4180m). Na is the oldest settlement around here. While entering this village we will see large figure of Guru Rinpoche carved on a huge rock. There are a couples of lodges. We will have one day rest here. One can visit small monasteries here, observe villagers work in their potato field and see many yaks. Population is very sparse. Na village is surrounded by snowcapped mountains.

Early morning push towards Lake Tsho Rolpa (4540m), 2 to 3 hrs walk. Trail first goes through the plain valley and then ascend to the lake. Lake is beautiful and surrounded by snowcapped mountains and glaciers. Few years back this lake was at the verge of collapse but Nepal Army engineered a safe passage way for lake’s excess water to escape and now the lake is safe. Return to Na, lunch there and head down to Beding for night stop.

From Beding we walk gradual down hill to Thanthing where we have lunch. After lunch we walk up to Kyalche which is 30min walk from Dongang

From Kyalche we walk down to Surmuche along the Rolwaling Khola to Simi.

From Simi we walk down to Chettchett and drive to Kathmandu.