Lhasa to Kathmandu Mountain Bike Tour

World's longest & deepest mountain bike tour including the Mount Everest Base Camp

This mountain bike tour offers the world's longest and steepest descent – a non-stop downhill that begins on the Tibetan Plateau and winds 150 kms down to the fertile rice fields of Nepal (an unbelievable 4600m descent!).

We will ride more than 1,100 km through Tibet on crushed stone roads and over spectacular mountain passes. The high point of the journey comes when we arrive at the monastery of Rongbuk and see Mount Everest Base Camp (5200m). This is the only trip in the world where you can visit Everest Base Camp with a bicycle! It was here on the North Face that Reinhold Messner began his successful solo ascent of Everest in 1980.

Sebastian Brown biking at the Everest Base Camp, North Face in 2006

We stay overnight during this journey in hotels and in tents. An experienced crew of guides, cooks and drivers from both Nepal and Tibet provide for a smooth operation. The tours are available between the months of April and October and feature 15 full days of biking with full logistical support. This mountain bike experience will also bring you into contact with three religions (Buddhism, Lamaism and Hinduism) and act as an introduction to the mysticism of Tibetan culture, the friendliness of the people and the daily culture in villagers' lives.

Itinerary

Day 01 Arrive in Kathmandu and get picked up from airport
          Hotel

Day 02 Full day Kathmandu sightseeing, Welcome Dinner in the evening
          Sightseeing : 09:00 hrs pickup from Hotel
          Dinner : 19:00hrs meeting at Hotel
          Hotel, (B/D)

Day 03 Fly from Kathmandu (1310m) to Lhasa (3600m)
          Pickup from Kathmandu Hotel on 08:15hrs
          Arrive in Lhasa
          Hotel, (B)

Day 04 Lhasa Sightseeing
          Hotel, (B)

Day 05 Lhasa Sightseeing
          Hotel, (B)

Day 06 Start the Bike Tour, up to base (3700m) of Kamba Pass
          [Total cycle: 85 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 07 Bike across Kamba Pass (4794m) to the other side at Camp (4490m)
          [Total cycle: 55 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 08 Bike to the base (4750m) of Karo Pass (5010m)
          [Total cycle: 54 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 09 Bike across Karo pass (5010m) to Gyantse (3980m)
          [Total cycle: 79 km], Hotel, (B/L)

Day 10 Shigatse (3860m)
          [Total cycle: 94 km], Hotel, (B/L)

Day 11 Gyachung Monastery (4100m)
          [Total cycle: 75 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 12 Bike across Yulong pass (4520m) to Lhatse (3860m)
          [Total cycle: 95 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 13 Bike across Lakpa Pass (5220m) to Shegar ()
          [Total cycle: 75 km], Hotel, (B/L)

Day 14 Off-road biking across Pang Pass (5150), to Rongbuk Valley (4200m)
          [Total cycle: 67 km], Camp, (B/L/D)

Day 15 Rongbuk Monastery (4200m) to the MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP (5150m)
          [Total cycle: 35 km], Camp (B/L/D)

Day 16 Everest Base Camp
          [Total cycle: 8km to 16km], Camp (B/L/D)

Day 17 Tingri (4340m)
          [Total cycle: 76 km], Camp (B/L/D)

Day 18 Bike across Lalung Pass (4900m) and camp in the valley between two passes
          [Total cycle: 75 km], Camp (B/L/D)

Day 19 Cross Thang Pass (5050m) and The Ultimate Downhill to Zhangmu (2300m)
          [Total cycle: 117 km], Hotel (B/L)

Day 20 Cross the border and get Back to Nepal, Stay at Dhulikhel (1600m)
          [Total cycle: 97km], Hotel (B/L)

Day 21 Ride back to Kathmandu, Evening on farewell Dinner at a restaurant (where? - a SECRET!)
          Dinner : 19:00hrs meeting at hotel
          [Total cycle: 35 km], Hotel (B/D)

Day 22 Final Departure from Nepal (B)

Legend: B - Breakfast, L - Lunch, D - Dinner (included as mentioned above)

We don't miss anything

Other people have tried to make this biking tour short - driving halfway and biking only on few sections. We don't do that unless you demand for a customized private tour.

Our regular tours operate with full logistic support and we pedal all the way from Lhasa to Kathmandu to ensure we won't miss anything. We know we are making the world's longest and descent bike descent. So, every bit of those 22 days is an experience.

Facts

The Highest; the Longest

What makes the Trans-Himalayan highway so special? Again, it's the highest road in the world, averaging an altitude of 4,500 metres above sea level as it traverses the Tibetan plateau. Secondly, the route boasts the world's longest continuous descent, which of course means that you'll face the world's longest uphill if you are heading in the opposite direction. Best of all to mountain bikers is the sense of isolation and awe-inspiring scenery. They must also face an onslaught of zigzagging mountain passes and endure a constant battle against breathlessness.

Conditions

Expect to cover 70 to 100 km per day. Be sure you have clothes for all conditions: remember that you are above the clouds and it can be very sunny and bright. It can also snow, rain, hail and become very, very cold at the drop of a hat. In fact, it's all character-building stuff and after one week you'll be more resilient to the harsh conditions.

What's the biking like?

Children carry baskets of yak dung home. The dung will be used as insulation on the walls of their house and, come winter, will be burnt as fuel. Yaks are everything out here: yak skin tents and canoes; yak milk, butter, curd and cheese; yak steak; yak wool sweaters; even yak urine as a medicinal remedy for exposed cuts.

After eight or nine days and 600 km of pedalling, you should find yourself around the town of Pelbar and the entrance to the Everest National Park. It's here that you will probably leave Highway 318 for a few days and head south to Everest Base Camp. By now you are carrying at least 50 per cent of the following ailments: knee ligament damage, saddle rash, backache, a very sore backside, cramps in your feet, a runny nose, diarrhoea, constipation, flatulence, headaches, nausea, dry eyes, a dusty cough, insomnia, lethargy, sunburn, frostbite, altitude sickness - not to mention any injuries you might have incurred from falling off your bike!

Fear not! For all these maladies combined cannot stop you now. Behold the Pang La, the mountain pass which rises before you! You grit your teeth, you meditate, you turn 'Eye of the Tiger' up to 10 on your Walkman; you do whatever you have to do to get into the groove, to get that Lance Armstrong vibe and hunker down for the next four or five hours to tackle this monster.

The Mount Everest

Conquering the Pang La is God's fee for allowing you to witness one of the planet's most stupefying vistas. After no less than 42 switchbacks and a rise of 900m in altitude, with your weary thighs bursting at the seams, you finally reach the cairn at the top of the pass, adorned in colourful Buddhist prayer flags. Suddenly the curtain is pulled back to reveal the row of Himalayan peaks you have been chasing. The Mount Everest!

You are now feeling physically and mentally ragged. Those last four or five hairpin bends were accomplished on willpower alone. You might well find an emotional tear freezing on your weather-beaten cheek as you finally dismount and gaze in awe at the white bowling pins before you almost close enough to touch: Makalu (8463m); Lhotse (8516m); Jachonggangri (7985m); Cho Oyu (8210m); Shisapangma (8012m); and the one that Tibetans have for centuries been calling Chomolungma ("Mother Goddess of the World"), at 8850 meters above sea level - Mount Everest.

Departure Dates 2010 - all guaranteed

23 Sep - 14 Oct, 2010 - (4 seats available)
07 Oct - 28 Oct, 2010 - (6 seats available)

Departure Dates 2011

April
Trip 01: 21/04 – 12/05/2011

May
Trip 02: 29/05 – 17/06/2011

June
Trip 02: 18/06 – 09/07/2011

July
Trip 04: 09/07 – 30/07/2011
Trip 05: 26/07 – 16/08/2011

August
Trip 06: 09/08 – 30/08/2011
Trip 07: 27/08 – 17/09/2011

September
Trip 08: 06/09 – 27/09/2011
Trip 09: 24/09 – 15/10/2011

October
Trip 10: 08/10 – 29/10/2011

(all set as Kathmandu arrival) 


Hotels we use

Kathmandu - Hotel de l' Annapurna 5*
Lhasa - Hotel Himalaya 3*
Gyantse - Gyantse Hotel 3*
Shigatse - Shigatse Hotel 3*
Shegar - Quomolongma Hotel 3*
Zhangmu - Zhangmu Hotel 3*

 

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Equipment

What you need to take on this tour.

 

 

 

 

 

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The first company

We are first company to research the route, prepare extensive log and operate the Lhasa to Kathmandu mountain bike tour.

The Best Operator

We stay at five star hotel in Kathmandu, traditionally designed 3 star hotel in Lhasa, and the best ones available on the way once we start biking.

World Class Equipment

Our tents and all camping stuffs are of world class.
see them

Contact

Makalu Adventure Pvt. Ltd.

Post Box No. 20144
Amrit Marg, Thamel, Kathmandu
NEPAL

Tel: + 977 1 4417522, 4420136
Fax: + 977 1 4417524

web: www.makaluadventure.com
e-mail: info@makaluadventure.com

References