Draped along the great­est heights of the Himalaya, Nepal is where the cold of the moun­tains meets the steamy heat of the Indi­an Plains. It’s a thor­ough­ly colour­ful slice of Asia — a land of yaks and yetis, Stu­pas and Sher­pas, and some of the most epic moun­tain bik­ing on Earth. 

Soar­ing snow-capped moun­tains shim­mer with rain­bows of prayer flags, while the intense streets of Kath­man­du become a cease­less fren­zy of chat­ter­ing ven­dors and gar­ish signs. Nepal’s crag­gy chunk of the Himalayas offers world-class ter­rain, pep­pered with rus­tic moun­tain vil­lages, and hun­dreds of undu­lat­ing trails that have been trod­den upon for centuries.

This Ride is a tale of two val­leys. The first half is spent rid­ing on the breath­tak­ing sin­gle­track of the lush hills sur­round­ing the Kath­man­du Val­ley. At the cen­ter of this val­ley lies Kath­man­du City — a UNESCO world her­itage site that is almost entire­ly an open-air muse­um, with hun­dreds of medieval tem­ples, palaces, shrines and stat­ues dot­ted around the nar­row streets. On the sec­ond half, we trav­el to the con­trast­ing arid Kali Gan­da­ki val­ley in the remote Low­er Mus­tang region. Fol­low­ing an ancient trade route between Nepal and Tibet, we will ride through the world’s deep­est val­ley on the foothills of some of the tallest moun­tains on Earth.
 

Is This Ride For You?

You are an expe­ri­enced, skilled moun­tain bik­er with very sol­id moun­tain bike han­dling skills. You have a strong fit­ness lev­el and can han­dle long, stren­u­ous climbs. You have advanced-lev­el tech­ni­cal skills and expe­ri­ence in a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent ter­rain, and you have no prob­lems descend­ing a set of stairs, for exam­ple. You don’t have a fear of fly­ing (there are two flights in small planes on this trip). You are excit­ed to explore what the locals ride on a com­bi­na­tion of sin­gle­track, old mule trails and dirt tracks among some of the most mag­nif­i­cent moun­tain ranges on plan­et earth! You have a sol­id, well-main­tained do-it-all trail bike (with rough­ly 130–160mm of trav­el, drop­per post and beefy tires. Rentals also available).

Itinerary

Day 1. Arrive in Kathmandu

Wel­come to Nepal!  We will meet you at the Trib­hu­van Inter­na­tion­al Air­port and trans­fer you over to our pic­turesque hotel in Nagarkot, locat­ed about 1.5 hours out­side of Kath­man­du City. We’ll build our bikes in the evening and get to meet our fel­low trav­ellers over some local beer.

Note: We rec­om­mend rid­ers trav­el­ling from any­where out­side of Asia to arrive in Nepal a day or two ear­ly to allow your body to adjust and to ensure you leave some time for any delayed bag­gages / flights. For rid­ers arriv­ing ear­ly, Hotel Ambas­sador is our rec­om­mend­ed hotel in Kath­man­du, and also the meet­ing point on Day 1.

Impor­tant: Our van leaves Kath­man­du at mid-day, so rid­ers should either get on flights land­ing before 12 PM, or arrive a day prior.

Day 2. The Shoot­ing Stars

After catch­ing up on some need­ed rest after the long flights, we’ll have a relaxed break­fast and pre-trip meeting.

We will start the ride by climb­ing towards the sum­mit of Nagarkot Hill — one of the high­est points in the Kath­man­du Val­ley. From there, we’ll descend to Nala on a fast and flowy for­est trail los­ing about 2,000 feet in elevation.

At the end of the descent, we will be trans­ferred to lunch back at our accom­mo­da­tion before ven­tur­ing out for some more trail fun in the afternoon.

Day 3. Bhak­ta­pur Vil­lage Trails

Today we’ll ride on a wide array of vil­lage trails, cross­ing through wood­ed forests and rice pad­dies and end­ing in the walled-city of Bhak­ta­pur (lit­er­al trans­la­tion: city of devo­tees), a medieval town where we’ll find more tem­ples than houses.

A local guide will give us a tour of this breath­tak­ing World Her­itage Site, allow­ing us to explore the beau­ti­ful palaces and tem­ples before enjoy­ing din­ner at a tra­di­tion­al pago­da style restaurant.

Day 4. Flight to Pokhara

We’ll set off ear­ly morn­ing to Kathmandu’s air­port to catch our plane to Pokhara. After the 30-minute flight, we will trans­fer over to our hotel in the Lake­side dis­trict of Pokhara.

While the bikes are being trans­ferred to Mus­tang, you can explore the area as you wish for the rest of the after­noon; you can plan an excur­sion to the near­by hills, go for a ped­al-boat ride on Fewa Lake, get a bird’s eye view of the beau­ti­ful lake city and the gor­geous Mac­cha­puchare moun­tain on a paraglid­er, or sim­ply relax at the hotel while enjoy­ing a well-deserved massage. 

Day 5. Flight to Jomson/Kagbeni Exploration

Rise and shine for anoth­er ear­ly morn­ing flight, albeit an incred­i­bly spec­tac­u­lar one. The 20-minute flight from Jom­som is one of the most breath­tak­ing flights in the world, and will take us straight into the heart of the Mus­tang Val­ley — deep in the Himalayas — as we spot the 7th and 10th high­est peaks in the world on either side.

Once we arrive in Jom­som, we’ll unpack our bikes and start rid­ing towards Kag­beni, an ancient vil­lage on the banks of the Kali Gan­da­ki river.

Day 6. The Twin Descents of Lupra

A mas­sive day with over 6,000 feet of descend­ing awaits. We’ll ride along the Muk­ti­nath ridge and climb towards the scenic Lupra Pass before fol­low­ing a trail down towards the vil­lage of Lupra, rid­ing over nar­row and tech­ni­cal singletrack.

Once we arrive in Lupra, we’ll con­tin­ue descend­ing down the Pan­da Kho­la to head back to Kag­beni for lunch. Post-lunch, we will shut­tle back to Muk­ti­nath and climb up to Lupra pass a sec­ond time, to ride anoth­er amaz­ing fast descent down to the Kali Gan­da­ki Valley. 

Day 7. Tho­rung High Camp

Today, we’ll reach the high­est point of our entire trip — a mon­strous ele­va­tion of 4,300 meters above sea level.

The air will get thin­ner and the trail will get steep­er as we shut­tle to the holy town of Muk­ti­nath where the bike ascent begins. 

It will be a chal­leng­ing day, but we’ll be reward­ed with a 5,000 feet descent through flowy, high Himalayan land­scape,  breath­tak­ing views and no short­age of pic­ture-per­fect vistas.

Day 8. Tra­verse The World’s Deep­est Valley

Today may be our most epic day yet. We’ll descend from the high alti­tudes of Mus­tang to the pine forests of Kalopani fol­low­ing the old trail along the riv­er, all the while star­ing up at the two 8000 meter peaks of Anna­pur­na and Dhaulagiri.

Day 9. Chick­en Run/Drive To Pokhara

Anoth­er day of diver­si­ty as we descend from the alpine Kalopani vil­lage to the sub­trop­ic jun­gles of Tatopani on a 15 mile descent.

A quick lunch break at Tatopani, and we’ll con­tin­ue rid­ing towards Beni where our van to Pokhara awaits.

Day 10. Pokhara Quickie

After a leisure­ly break­fast at our hotel in Pokhara, we’ll shut­tle up to the World Peace Pago­da to ride a quick but fun for­est descent fin­ish­ing at our lake­side lunch restaurant.

Day 11. Flight to Kath­man­du & Clos­ing Dinner

After break­fast, we’ll make our way to the air­port, catch our return flight to Kath­man­du air­port and shut­tle to our hotel.

The rest of the after­noon will be spent explor­ing and indulging once more in this far­away land and cul­ture. We will con­verge in the evening for a cel­e­bra­to­ry din­ner to mark the end of our epic journey.

Day 12. Depar­ture Day

We’ll have shut­tles depart­ing all day to take you back to Kath­man­du for your flight home.


The fol­low­ing data rep­re­sents a typ­i­cal itin­er­ary, but adven­ture trav­el can be unpre­dictable and our Guides may need to make last-minute changes to ensure your enjoy­ment. Inclement weath­er, road clo­sures, changes to the itin­er­ary to accom­mo­date requests, and oth­er issues may affect the itin­er­ary. The ride data rep­re­sents an ‘aver­age’ itin­er­ary, and may dif­fer when you actu­al­ly show up to ride. Our guides make every effort to stick to the itin­er­ary as post­ed, but your safe­ty is our #1 priority.

Ride Data: Treasures of the Himalaya

Day Hours of rid­ing Dis­tance rid­den Ele­va­tion gained Ele­va­tion lost High­est ele­va­tion
1 0 0 0 0 0
2 5 19 3166 5800 7000
3 4 16 1509 3350 7000
4 0 0 0 0 0
5 4 10 1804 1300 10500
6 6 19 2000 6900 13450
7 5 21 2000 6700 14100
8 6 24 2100 3000 9200
9 5 26 558 5400 8200
10 1.5 5 328 1300 3610
11 0 0 0 0 0
12 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 36.5 HRS

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Dates chosen: Mar. 11, 2024—Mar. 22, 2024
Skill Rating: Black Diamond
Fitness Rating: Black Diamond
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Skill Levels
Black Diamond

The Black Diamond Rides are  suitable for riders looking for that edge. Maybe it’s the edge of a drop, the edge of a cliff, or singletrack requiring focus and fast reactions developed from extensive experience riding “the edge”. You will find yourself on steep trails of varied surfaces. In the Pacific North West that could be slick roots and loam, in Nepal you will find exposed granite in the Mustang Valley and in Guatemala it maybe narrow stairways through cliffside villages. While airtime is rarely required, the ability to find the backside or clean a tabletop should be comfortable or in a state of progress. Obstacles on Black rides are likely to be outside the range of your bikes ability to cover your goofs with its awesome suspension and grip.

Blue Square

In general, Blue trails are narrower than green trails, encounter unavoidable obstacles such as roots, rocks, and drops that are up to 8-inches tall. You will want to have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of mountain biking including body positions, powerful braking, cornering, riding on varied terrain, steep sections and experience riding trails that requires line choice. Airtime is not mandatory, but you will find yourself on trails with alternate lines giving you the option.

Double Black Diamond

A Double Black ride is for those that already know they are looking for a Double Black. It’s going to be very hard and require advanced bike handling skills. You will find yourself on trails with sections most non-riders would look at and say, “that’s totally nuts!”. You will know how to look at a line and contemplate where it will work and where it won’t. Drops of a couple feet should be comfortable and getting your bike off the ground should feel predictable and fun.

Green Circle

Typically, green Rides are safe for beginners. Green Rides may have both avoidable and unavoidable obstacles. Trails are generally low grade, wide, consistent surface texture and have minimal features. You are likely to come across unavoidable obstacles 2-inches or shorter, which is small enough for mountain bike tires to simply roll over. More challenging than tarmac, but in general, a wonderful Ride for those riders new to mountain biking or looking for a casual experience.

Fitness Levels
Black Diamond

A Black Fitness ride will test you. Aside from needing to be able to manage up to 6 hours on the bike, day after day, including distance up to 50km/30miles and elevation gains up to 1750m/5000feet of climbing, you will be adding extra challenges along the route like periods of hike-a-bike and the extra effort required by the whole body to safely dance with your bike over technical terrain. Generally, riders who are up for a Black Fitness ride, likely spend time on the bike a couple times each week.

Blue Square

Blue should be considered a good deal more effort than our Green Rides.  You should be able to handle 3 to 5 hours in the saddle covering up to 45km/30miles and be able to pull off a big day of 1000m/3000feet of elevation gain. Managing fuel is important as well.  You should have a good understanding how your body responds to multiple days on the bike. We will help with positive coaching, a manageable pace and plenty of trailside snacks.

Double Black Diamond

A Double Black will be for those with the strength and endurance to get to the top of anything they want and understand the term “turning the screw”. Distance could be quite high on some routes and elevation gain numbers could hit 2000m/6000 feet+ in a day. You are likely riding multiple days a week during the dry periods and have a trainer or belong to a gym for the rest of the year.

Green Circle

You should be ready to spend 2-4 hours per day on the bike. Mileage may be up to 30km/20 miles and elevation gain will be under 500m/1500feet. On e-MTB tours, numbers will be higher, however the approximate effort would be considered similar to a standard Green Circle ride. If you get on your bike once a week, you will be just fine. However, when preparing for a Ride, you will benefit from more rides and time in the saddle.