time: 8 1/2 hours total, including lunch and rest breaks
distance: 16 km.
start point altitude: Chozo 4120m
endpoint campsite: camp west of Tsho Chena 4925m
high pass crossing: Sintia La 5200 m
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman Trek, as well as others.
See here for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser! Sintia La is indicated (28.016522 90.186121 ).
I used a Sony RX100 III to frame most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
The Snowman Trek can be divided into three main sections:
The trail from Shana past Jomolhari and on to Chebisa and ending at Laya – 11 days.
The trail to Lunana from Laya to either Chozo or Thanza – 5 days
The trail south from Chozo or Thanza to either Upper Sephu or Duer Village – 6 days
The last section of our trek – and reputedly the toughest one – was about to begin. The two highest passes of the trek were coming up, and a couple of nights camping at around 5000 meters. This high-altitude trekking would remind me at times of my walk across the high plateau on the north side of Nepal’s Annapurna range in Upper Mustang. The views over the next five and a half days would sometimes rival those of that earlier trip, even if there is nothing in Bhutan as dramatic as our crossing of Nepal’s Saribung La (6040m). [See herefor pix of the Annapurna Saribung La area.]
Laya To Upper Sephu – high passes and campsites graph
Some trekkers had gotten up early to see off the seven ultra-marathoners on Day 3 of their five-day Snowman Race Calibration Run. [See the previous post for more information. The first official race will be held in October 2020.] It was a sunny morning in Chozo, and by 7:30 breakfast time, trekkers and staff were milling about in the building below the tents in the image below. After a day off the trail, we were keen to get back to it.
Our Chozo campsite in the morning sun
Looking up the Pho Valley to the top of Lunana
To get to the bridge crossing the Pho Chhu, we had to retrace our steps about a kilometre downriver. As we did, I turned around and got a fairly clear view of Table Mountain, one you don’t get when you’re in the settlement itself. The view would only improve the further we walked downriver.
Walking downriver from Chozo to the bridge crossing
Some Snowman route itineraries take the trekkers through Thanza and turn south from there. Our route could be called a shortcut since we were accessing a route just across the river from Chozo. As we neared the bridge, a team of ten horses were coming towards us. They were from Toncho or one of the settlements near Thanza, and on their way to our campsite as part of the horse team, our guide had arranged to take us down to the endpoint at Upper Sephu above the Nikka Chhu.
a local horse team on its way to Chozo
From the other side of the river and from higher elevations, as we started our climb to Sintia La, there were more great views of Table Mountain (aka Gangchen Singye, Tjojokang, and yet other names with variable spellings). I much prefer this kind of trekking – and the views it offers – to the muddy trails on the heavily forested slopes of the first two and a half days of the Snowman Trek.
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a frame (slightly cropped) from the movie Lunana Yak In The Classroom
A year before (i.e.2018), the crew for the film Lunana: Yak in the Classroommade use of the bridge to convey both the main character’s arrival at and leaving (1’40”) of Chozo. The departure scene was shot from downriver. BTW – the film is definitely worth your time. You can rent it at the YouTube website for $5.
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a view of Tshojo (Chozo) and Table Mountain from the other side of the Pho Chhu
Looking back at Chozo and its surroundings from the other side of the Pho Chhu
The first couple of hours were steady uphill, but the trail was fairly clear and the walking easy. We had as company a Chozo local who was looking for a yak that had gone missing the previous day. We left him without finding out if he had any luck. It was the top half of the day’s climb where things got a bit more difficult – it involved walking through a boulder field on a steep slope. The two following images will give you an idea!
trekkers and horses heading up to Sintia La
a rough trail up to Sintia La from Chozo
Somewhere along the way, making ourselves comfortable in the rock rubble, we had lunch.
We had left around 8:30; by 2:30, we were walking alongside the glacial lake on the Chozo side of the Sintia La (aka Chinchu La). The most taxing part of the day was over since the pass is just beyond it.
The glacial lake on the north side of Sintia La – trail visible on the right-hand side of the image
the trail passes by the lake before Sintia La – See here for a similar shot from 2017 with prayer flags!
Sintia La was the least pass-like of the eleven we did. Once beyond that glacial lake on the Chozo side, you reach a high plateau, and it takes a moment to realize that it is the pass. There were no prayer flags or rockpiles to mark the spot. The red pin on each map indicates the location of the “pass”, which we marked with the customary “Lha gyalo” shout. We were at 5200 meters, the high point of the trail that would take us to our camp.
Apple Maps Satellite view – Chozo to Sintia La
And here is the Google Earth view; the shallow lake south of Sintia La is partially visible.
Google Earth satellite view – Chozo to Sintia La 5200m
As noted, there are no prayer flags, no cairns. The trail marker in the bottom left of the image immediately below is the only marker I remember seeing.
Sintia La – the day’s high point from Chozo to Tsho Chena
The shallow lake just south of Sintia La in Bhutan’s Lunana district
A five-centimetre snowfall on the plateau would hide any evidence of the path trodden by previous pack animals, traders, and trekkers and make the walk that much more interesting!
terrain south of Sintia La
For some reason, I took no photos for the next hour and a half! We would lose about 250 meters in altitude as we walked across a high plateau to our campsite 2.5 kilometres west of Tsho Chena.
My Garmin inReach track of the route from Sintia La to our campsite west of Tsho Chena
a Google Earth View of the terrain from Sintia La to a Campsite 2.5 km. west of Tsho Chena
Snowman Trek Day 18 Camp (4925m) west of Tsho Chena
See here for a Google Earth view of Chozo (also spelled
Tshojo,
Tshojong, and
Tshozhong)
If you have Apple Maps, its satellite imagery is sometimes more detailed and realistic than the Google one.
I used a Sony RX100 III to frame most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
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Rest Day In Chozo (Tshojo)
downtown Chozo on a sunny morning in October – our lodge on the bottom right/the Dzong visible above all the other buildings/behind is the ridge I regret not having walked up
A day to do nothing – or next to it! Some of the group were more ambitious and headed off to Thanza, five kilometers up at the top of the Pho Chhu valley.
Those versions of the Snowman Trek that end in the Bumthang area usually spend two nights in Thanza. Since our route south started with a high pass just across the river from Chozo, it made more sense for us to camp there instead.
Chozo as seen from up high on the other side of the river the next morning
A late breakfast and an extra cup of coffee and then a bit of rambling up and down the paths in the village …that’s what I did. Some were keen and did laundry. Then it was time for lunch and a nap. This was followed by a flurry of movement as the kitchen staff, having warmed up enough hot water, called us in turn to the shower tent. It was our third (and last!) full-body wash of the trek; the next one would be in Punakha a week later.
the kitchen team getting lunch ready
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A Visit To the Chozo Dzong:
If England is about castles and France about châteaus, then western and central Bhutan is all about dzongs! They are the #1 tourist attraction in Paro, Punakha, and Trongsa. More remote ones like Drugyel Dzong and Lingshi Dzong also see visitors, the number only determined by the difficulty in getting there.
The Chhozo Dzong – frame from the film Lunana A Yak In The Classroom
The dzong in Chozo probably wins the prize for most remote! Also, given the economic base that supports it, it is one of the more humble ones, even more so than the one in Lingshi. However, unlike the Lingshi dzong, damaged repeatedly by earthquakes and fire, this one is intact and in good shape.
Mark Horrell – a side view of the Chozo Dzong in 2009
The photo above by Mark Horrell on his Flickr page shows the dzong as it was a decade ago before it was given a new roof and painted. It definitely looked better in 2019! (See here for the image source!)
the Chozo Dzong and the surrounding area
The dzong sits high above the floodplain of the Pho Chhu. The two-storey U-shaped front section and open courtyard are enclosed by the utse or tower in the back. While it may have served as an administrative and religious center in better days, now only a solitary monk lives here.
Lunana’s Chozo Dzong -the front side
The main door was locked when we first approached the dzong, and a knock on the door did not prompt a response. I ended up walking around the building, only later realizing that I had broken a basic law of the Himalayas regarding religious structures like mani walls and chortens – and dzongs: I had gone around counter-clockwise!
Chozo Dzong – front door
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Behind The Dzong – The Chorten & The Altar with Dzoe
a chorten behind the Chozo dzong
Behind the dzong, I found what looked like an altar, a place to leave offerings. At the foot of the structure were three plastic soft drink bottles, either litter or containers emptied of the liquid gifted to placate the spirits.
a stone structure behind the Chozo dzong
On the roof were three cross-shaped things bound with string – all in an identical pattern. Like the dream catcher of Anishinaabe culture in Canada, it is meant to trap negative spirits. Known as a dzoe or tendo, the device illustrates certain beliefs held by its users –
a Dzoe orTendo – spirit catcher – behind the Chozo Dzong
Sometimes you will come across a strange construction of twigs, straw and rainbow-coloured thread woven into a spider-web shape. You may see one near a building or by a roadside, with flower and food offerings. This is a dzoe (also known as a tendo), a sort of spirit catcher used to exorcise something evil that has been pestering a household. The malevolent spirits are drawn to the dzoe. After prayers the dzoe is cast away, often on a trail or road, to send away the evil spirits it has trapped. from Lonely Planet web page on Bhutanese Life – see here
the Chozo Dzong – a view from the back
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Inside The Dzong
Circling the dzong, I was back at the front. The door was open, and my fellow trekker called to me to come in. The monk (and keeper of the keys) had apparently heard that we wanted to visit and had come up to the dzong from our lodge. The photos below show some of what we saw – but not the most important.
the interior of the Chozo Dzong
We walked across the courtyard to the utse, the tower structure at the back of the dzong. The resident monk opened the door you see in the image below and, after taking off our boots at the entrance, up we went on a set of ladder steps to the second floor. We entered the room and found a shrine area with three not-quite-lifesize metal statues, perhaps of bronze or painted to look like it. The three figures were, from left to right –
Padmasambhava (i.e. Guru Rinpoche) – the Buddhist tantric master who brought his version of Buddhism from northern India to Tibet in the 700s CE (that is, 1300 years ago). In the Himalayan cultural world, he is known as “the Second Buddha” but the fact is that his version of Buddhism, infused as it was with tantric concepts, fit much better with the pre-existing animistic beliefs of the Bon religion than the teachings of the first Buddha. The shrine figure had Padmasambhava holding a bell in one hand and a Dorje or thunderbolt in the other; his moustache is another clue as to his identity.
Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, – the 400’s B.C. originator of what we now know as Buddhism who lived his life in the Ganges plain area. He is depicted in the classic mudra with his right hand touching the earth; the significance of this would be known to all Buddhists.
Ngawang Namgyal – a Tibetan Buddhist monk, as well as a military and political leader. Also known by the title Zhabdrung Rinpoche “(the precious one at whose feet one submits”), in the early to mid-1600s, he united the western and central areas of the political entity we know today as Bhutan. Belonging to the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism, he often found himself at odds with other Buddhist groups within Bhutan and with the branch on the ascendant in Tibet at that time, the Gelugpa sect headed by the 5th. Dalai Lama. He can be identified by his full beard and red hat associated with the Drukpa line.
A YouTube video posted in 2013 recorded a puja ceremony in the shrine room. While the statues of the three above figures are not revealed, you do get an idea of what the room looks like.
At the end of the trip, we would visit the Punakha Dzong, and in the breathtaking main shrine room, we saw the same arrangement of the three above figures – the Holy Trinity of Bhutanese Buddhism!
It would have been nice to get a few photos of the shrine area to compensate for my faulty memory of what I saw! As is often the case in Bhutan, no photos were permitted within the temple itself.
Chozo Dzong monk at the door to the tower/utse
the Chozo Dzong – the interior front wall and door to the outside
Click herefor 6 Bhutanese Dzongs – Fortresses, Architecture & Significance for a basic web page overview of the Bhutanese dzong, complete with good images of some of the major ones. [If the link is dead, you can access a PDF file of the article here.]
A much more in-depth and well-written piece of research is Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas by Peter Harrison. A downloadable Kindle copy from Amazon is available. The front cover illustrates the ultimate dzong of all, the Potala in Lhasa, Tibet.
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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Lunana movie promo with Chozo Dzong in the background
A few frames of this Bhutanese film, released in October 2019, include the Chozo Dzong in them. The dzong is in the frame below on the screen’s bottom right.
The film would be nominated for a 2022 Oscar in the International Film category. The crew must have been up in the Lunana region in September-October 2018 to do the filming, using the villagers as their actors. I accessed the movie – a touching, sentimental, romanticized view of upcountry Bhutan – on YouTube for $5. (Link here.) The film’s main character grapples with the conflict between the traditional culture of western Bhutan (the Dzongkha-speaking area) and his desire to embrace Aussieland and the “modern” world’s values.
The NPR website has an insightful interview with the film director, Pawo Choyning Dorji, who made it happen with a $300,000 budget. It ends with his response to this question –
Do you think modernization is affecting happiness?
It definitely is, but I also think change is inevitable. Bhutan is very unique in how it has evolved over the years. As a nation, we came together in 1901. We were the last country in the world to allow television or connect to the Internet because we welcomed that isolation and saw it as a means to preserve our way of life. But when we opened up in the early 2000s, it felt like it was too much, too soon. Television became the hottest item in society. People were selling their yaks for TVs. Our old ways of life transformed too quickly.
It’s ironic though. Until the last day of filming, I was wracked by worry over whether I was doing the right thing by intruding into the villagers’ lives. When I left Lunana, the village was being modernized. The government was laying roads and erecting telephone poles. The villagers were happy. Their standard of living was bound to improve. People would be more connected. But I knew life was going to change irrevocably and my footage of Lunana would be the last time we could see it so untouched.
Pem Zam, one of the little girls from the village, for instance is now on Facebook and TikTok — and she sends me videos of her dancing!
When we passed through Ledhi on our way to Chozo, nine kilometers upriver, we saw the large Lunana district school building. The Google Earth map uses the name Lunana Village instead of Lhedi. See here for a satellite close-up of the school in Lhedi.
Lhedi Primary School – October 2019
I did not see anything designated as a school during our stay in Chozo. A scan of the various photos I took in Chozo did not turn up any building that looked like the one the movie used as the “school”.
the school in the movie Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom
However, the satellite view in Apple Maps locates a building with the same name and rectangular shape as the one in the image above. See the image below for its location –
Google sat view
Apple Maps view
Mendrelthang School opened in 2012 and in 2022 had 9 students and two teachers. One of them, Namgay Dorji, has served at the school for over a decade.
Nine students and their teacher are pictured in the two images at the end of this post. They had walked down from the school to our tent site to greet the arriving ultra-marathon runners at the end of their 63-kilometer run from Rodophu!
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Villagers And Trekking Staff At Work And Play:
some of our support staff killing time in Chozo -Thanza and the top of Lunana Valley are behind them
Chozo boys practising the national sport of Bhutan near our camping spot
a Chozo house in the traditional Ngalop style
bundling hay in one of the fields behind our camping area
Chozo in Lunana -hay storage – or drying? – platform
Chozo Lunana in October – wood supply for the coming winter
a member of the trek support team playing the dranyen, a traditional Tibetan lute
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Climate Change: Its Impact On Lunana
The acronym GLOF stands for glacial lake outburst flood. I had heard of the phenomenon before; a trek up the Imja Tse valley in the Everest region of Nepal brought us close to a lake, Imja Tsho, which was a mere puddle fifty years ago. These days it contains two billion cubic meters of water; it is held back by its terminal moraine, the accumulated rock debris collected at the bottom of a glacier that acts as a dam to the melting glacier above it and helps form the lake. The flood can be initiated by various factors:
inflowing water from a higher-up lake
an earthquake
an avalanche
Lunana and the Glacial Lakes
When I first looked at a satellite image of the heart of Lunana district – the stretch of the Pho Chhu from Ledhi up to Thanza – I noticed that at the top of the valley were three lakes:
Raphstreng Tsho
Thorthormi Tsho
Luggye Tsho
The top of Lunana Valley looked like an ideal place for a similar occurrence. More research turned up accounts of a 1994 flood caused when the southwest corner of Luggye Tsho’s terminal moraine gave way. Glacial water had rushed down the Pho Chhu and killed 20 people and destroyed several buildings as far down as Punakha and its Dzong.
As if to bring the reality of GLOF, my Google Bhutan news alert flashed this article –
I recall contacting the World Expeditions sales rep in Ottawa to see what the organizers had in place to deal with a possible flood! I was assured they were aware of the situation! When we walked through Lhedi just below Chozo I did note how high above the river the settlement was. In Chozo, somewhat closer to the river, the thought of a GLOF while we sleeping did cross my mind a couple of times!
A bit more research when I got back from the trek turned up these stats on the Lunana GLOF warning system from October 9, just five days before we were there –
A New York Times article from Nov. 14, 2025 examines the GLOF situation in the Himalayas using two Nepalese locations in the Khumbu – – Thame and Inje Tsho – as examples –
Snowman Ultra Marathon Route – see here for the map source
Okay, so our stay in Chozo did not coincide with the arrival of floodwaters from the Rephstreng or Thortormi Tshos! However, on a much lighter note, it coincided with the arrival of the seven runners participating in the Snowman Ultra-Marathon trial run.
The run is divided into five stages.
Gasa – Rodophu 60 km.
Rodophu – Tshojo 63 km.
Chozo (Tshojo) – Gecheewam 51 km.
Gecheewan – Dhur Tshachhu 39 km.
Dhur Tshachhu – Kurjey 63 km.
Chozo school children preparing for the arrival of a Snowman Trail runner
Here is the promotional copy for the 2020 run from a website devoted to marathons:
This race of a lifetime follows the trail of the famous Snowman Trek, which has been completed by fewer people than Everest. The audacious event appropriately turns up the heat, focused as it is on Climate Change. Slated to be the most challenging race in the world, this ultramarathon will take runners across the breathtaking, pristine landscapes of Lunana– lakes, glaciers, majestic mountains, shrubs, isolated villages, and the highest places within the Himalayan mountain range. Somewhere between myth and mystery, the unforgiving terrain will be a true test of strength, resilience, and willpower for even the most daring and fittest athletes. See here for the web page.
Not only does it connect the run to the climate change issue, but it also helps advertise the Snowman Trek to lesser mortals. Given more attractive options like the Annapurna 100, also in October, and runs (admittedly much shorter) on better terrain in the Everest region, only hardcore masochists will be attracted to this five-day suffer-fest!
It is almost 5:30, and still no Snowman Trail runners at the Chozo finish line
Our stay in Chozo coincided with Day 2 of the trial race. The participants had started from Rodophu that morning and covered 63 kilometers! They would stay overnight in the lodge in the background of the image above. They were already gone when we got up for breakfast in the lodge dining room the next morning!
We had taken four days to cover Day 2’s distance, which the runners later agreed was the single most difficult day of the five-day ultra-marathon! The posts below detail that one day of their run:
Three of the seven runners ( some identified as farmers while the others were in the Bhutanese Army) finished the route in less than twelve hours. The others arrived long after we had gone to bed! The eventual winner was Sangay Wangchuk, a 36-year-old army guy.
Snowman Race Participants – 2019 Trial Run – See here for source
Sangay Wangchuk is the first to cross the Chozo Day 2 finish line – October 2019
See here for an article from Kuensel, a Bhutanese newspaper, about the trial run.
Note: Our version of the Snowman trek differed somewhat from the ultra-marathon version.
Ours started in Shana and went up to Laya via Jhomolhari and Chebisa, while the marathon version shortened it by starting in Gasa.
We headed south from Chozo (Tshojo) while the marathon version passed through Thanza before turning south.
The race version ended up in Bumthang, whereas our endpoint was Upper Sephu on the Nikka Chhu.
World Expeditions Snowman compared to Snowman Ulta-Marathon Route
Kandoo, a UK travel company, offers a Gasa to Bumthang version of The Snowman Trek that comes closest to following the Ultra-marathon trail route. See here for the details. My World Expeditions trek itinerary can be accessed here.]
October 2022 – The First Snowman Ultra-Marathon
Unfortunately, COVID-19 derailed plans for the first Snowman Ultra slated for October 2020. It was eventually held in October 2022 with a field of 29 runners, with 9 of them from Bhutan. Only 17 finished the race, with locals standing on all the podium spots! See here for an account of the event.
Billing the event as one to raise awareness of the climate change issue while having well-to-do participants fly 12000 kilometers from North America and Europe does seem a bit strange. I wonder if they are expected to pay the $ 200-a-night Sustainable Development Fee while in Bhutan for a week or ten days.
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After our rest day in Chozo, it was time to switch back to trekking mode. We were heading south into the most alpine-like part of our trek and my favourite. The next morning with a relentless 1200-meter climb from Chozo to Sintia La, at 5200 meters, our highest trek pass so far.
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman Trek, as well as others.
See here for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser! If you have Apple Maps, its satellite view is more detailed and more realistic than Google’s.
I used a Sony RX100 III to frame most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
from our Day 15 Campsite to Keche La and on towards Lledi via Thaga
Lledi to Chozo with Thanza further up valley
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A Cloudy Start To the Day
Low-hanging cloud meant there were no great views when I got up this morning. The hope was that things would clear up by the time we got to our high pass of the day, Keche La at 4650m, some 200 meters higher than our camp on above Green Lake.
Green Lake camp – early morning
one of the lead horses – the red headdress is a sign of rank and status!
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The Scenic Trail To Keche La
We set off around 8:00 and within an hour were at the pass. The sequence of three images below captures the ascent to Keche La. In the first you can see the camp down below; the second pic captures most of Green Lake; with the third image, we are at the pass and welcoming the last of the trekkers while just behind them is the second higher lake.
trekkers heading up to Keche La from the Green Lake Camp
on the way to Keche La – a one Keche La – a one-hour uphill walk from Green Lake camp
the view from Keche La – looking back at where we came from
the view from Keche La – the two lakes and the trail to get to the pass
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There Be Demons To Subdue
Not our day for peaks – the cloud cover still obscured the tops of Teri Kang and Jejekangphu Kang. It was also quite windy up there so I began heading down soon after the last of the group arrived. Doing so meant I missed adding my voice to yet another group shout of “Lha gyalo” (Victory to the gods!), a good luck ritual we had been asked to do at the top of each pass.
I did ask our guide if there was maybe a shout we could do for “Clear skies and visible peaks”. Unfortunately, there was only Lha gyalo! The shout was just one of the many reminders during the trek of how far Tibetan (i.e. Himalayan) Buddhism strayed from the teaching of the historical Siddhartha Gautama. It blended the local animistic Bon beliefs of the Himalayas with the Tantric Buddhism which flourished in northern India a thousand years after the Buddha.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The passage of time changes everything. So too does taking one culture’s stories and explanations to the big questions of life and transplanting them into another one that already has a mythology and worldview of its own. The variations of Christianity around the globe are but one example of how time and space impact the development of religions.
However, the result is often clearly at odds with the actual teaching of the founder. Few would argue that Himalayan Buddhism was actually Siddhartha’s intent. After all, it is not Siddhartha Gautama but Padmasambhava, i.e. Guru Rinpoche, who is the real Buddha in the Himalayas; he is the master of sorcery and impressive tantric powers; he has female consorts and dakinis. The Buddha of the Ganges plain – and of the teachings preserved in the Pali texts – would roll his eyes at the exalted place of lamas, the claims to secret teachings and their uncovering by tertons, the obsession with metaphysics, and the practice of magic and sorcery.
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Entering The Heart of Lunana
If Woche marked the traditional boundary of Lunana, then by some definition with our descent from Keche La we were entering the real heart of Lunana.
Keche La – heading down to the Pho Chhu and Lunana
We followed a mountain stream down the valley you see in the image below. The hillsides were showing some autumn colour. While somewhat more subdued than the fall colours in the maple forests of central Ontario in Canada, it was still a pretty sight.
trail and stream heading down to the Pho Valley and Lunana
fall colours – Bhutan Himalaya style
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The Dilapidated Thaga Chorten
Down the valley trail we went, arriving at the settlement of Tega (Thaga) at 4040 m. a bit more than an hour later. The “village ” is made up of 6 houses scattered over a half-kilometre of the trail. At the top end, we passed by a surprisingly dilapidated chorten that looked like it had been abandoned by the locals.
the trail through Thaga settlement to the Pho Chhu
Perhaps the demons and monsters that once held sway in their imaginations have given way to other stories. The chorten we walked by certainly does not fit in with the Bhutan Tourist Board’s promotion of their country as “the last Shangrila”. Perhaps as a seasonal settlement, the people who live here have more pressing matters to attend to in the few months they are there?
a dilapidated chorten at the entrance to Tega (Thaga) in Lunana
Thaga chorten – close up
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Thaga Villagers On the Trail
Thaga villagers on the side of the trail
Thaga boys watch the trekkers pass by
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Up The Pho Chhu Trail To Lledi
From Thaga, the trail heads east alongside the Pho Chhu, at first high above the riverbed. After we crossed a bridge that took us over a scenic waterfall, it then descended steeply and soon we were approaching Lhedi on a trail going up a dry section of the river bed.
Snowman trail from Green Lake to Chozo
We got this view of Lhedi before crossing that bridge by the waterfall and then headed down to the dry riverbed of the Pho Chhu.
the first view of Lhedi as we walk up the Pho Chhu river bed from Thaga (Tega)
waterfall and bridge on the way to Lhedi in Lunana
approaching Ledhi – Pho Chhu riverbed trail
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Views of Lledi
Lhedi is a small settlement that stretches for a kilometer on the north side of the Pho Chhu. The Apple Maps satellite image below shows the dozen or so buildings that make it up. [In the Google Earth view, Lhedi appears as Lunana Village.] The most prominent building is the primary school, a U-shaped one-storey stone building with the schoolyard surrounded on three sides by classrooms and administrative offices.
Lhedi – satellite view of the Lunana settlement
Lhedi school – October 2019
We had lunch 100 meters beyond the school just off the trail out of the settlement. Later these two young women would come walking by, looking like they were set for an afternoon of shopping on Thimphu’s main street. They may have been going to the medical clinic in Lledi.
two young Lunana women on the trail to Lhedi from Chozo
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Arriving At Chozo
After lunch, more riverbed walking that never seemed to end with some sections made tiring thanks to the attention we had to pay to every step on the irregularly shaped stones we were walking over.
a section of the trail from Lhedi to Chozo
the trail to Chozo on the left side of the Pho Chhu (East Branch)
Finally, Chozo! We walked across that stone “bridge” in the middle of the image and headed for the building on the right-hand side for our camp spot.
We would spend two nights in Chozo.
It was a chance for the trekkers and agency staff to have a rest day and get things ready for the final leg of our trek.
It gave our guide some time to finalize arrangements for the new horse or yak team we would need since the horses that had carried our gear from Laya would be returning to that village.
approaching Chozo from downriver
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Our Chozo Tent Site Behind The Lodge
In examining the satellite image of Chozo below I could not find the building we made use of during our Chozo stay. The building was new and the inside was only roughly done and not finished. The Apple satellite image must predate its construction.
Not only did we camp behind it, but we also used a corner of it as our dining room, while our kitchen staff did the cooking in the next room.
Chozo in Lunana – Apple Maps satellite view – our lodge indicated by the X
Chozo trekkers’ campground in front of the settlement
Looming behind Chozo sits Table Mountain, that massive stretch of rock in the image below, which was shot a couple of days later from the other side of the river when we were back on trek. Also visible in the image is the Chozo Dzong. On my rest day, I would walk up to the dzong and get a brief tour with the resident monk. The next post has the details and pix.
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking in Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman, as well as other treks.
See here for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser!
I used a Sony RX100 III to frame most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
Apple Maps satellite view – Snowman Trek: Tarina to Green Lake east of Woche
Google Earth 3D View:
Google Earth satellite view – Tarina to Green Lake above Woche (3880 m)
The satellite image of our day’s walk is the first clue that the vistas on this day would not be as dramatic as the ones from the day before. We’d walk down the trail on the east side of the Pho Chhu (Tang Chhu) for a couple of hours, sometimes through heavily treed sections complete with mud. At the point indicated with a red dot, an initially steep curling ascent towards our first settlement since Laya – that of Woche, on the south side of that massif, framed by the Pho and the Woche Chhu coming down from the northeast. At 3880 meters, Woche is at the same elevation as Tarina, the campsite we had left three hours before.
We lunched at Woche and then continued up the west side of the river – the Woche Chhu – until we came to the bridge. Once on the other side, it was an easy ascent to a meadow above the river where trekking parties sometimes stop for the day and set up camp. Our goal was a campsite 300 meters higher. It would turn out to be one of my favourites of the trip and provided us with a WOW view at the end of a relatively easy day’s walk.
Tarina camp – early morning view looking northwest
Looking back at our Tarina campsite on the left bank of the Po Chhu (West Branch)
We left our Tarina camp around 8:30 and spent two hours on a trail down the left side of the Pho Chhu to the beginning of our easy uphill climb to Woche. As was often the case, the forested sections of the trail got quite muddy in spots. We crossed a bridge or two over side streams coming down to the Pho Chhu and saw a few waterfalls on the west side of the river.
a side stream coming down to the west branch of the Pho Chhu (aka Tang Chhu)
bridge over a side stream flowing into the Pho Chhu (West Branch)
a stony section of trail along the Pho River’s west branch to Woche
The importance of this trail to locals was brought home by this stone staircase on our upward hike to Woche. We arrived so early that there was a bit of a wait until the lunch crew arrived! Luckily, it was a warm and sunny day, and we stretched out in the flat area in front of some Woche houses. There are about a dozen houses in the settlement. See the satellite view below.
stone steps on the trail to Woche from Tarina
Woche has traditionally been the dividing line between the districts of Laya and Lunana. It was here that Laya yaks were exchanged for Lunana yaks – and vice versa. We stopped for lunch in the meadow below the houses; my Garmin-generated altitude read 3888 m.
The “yak highway” through Woche, the first settlement on the Snowman trek since Laya
trekkers’ lunch in an open space at Woche
Woche group shot – Angel’s Canon SX60
After lunch, we walked the trail northeast out of Woche and, after an hour, started to lose altitude as we headed down to the river.
approaching the bridge across the Woche Chhu above Woche
Once on the bridge, I pointed my camera lens up and down the river to capture some of the glacial stream’s energy. A brief video would have done this much better!
The Woche Chhu tumbling down to the bridge crossing
the Woche Chhu heading downstream from the wood bridge
We had a short break at a meadow just above the river; it is apparently used by some trekking groups as an alternative to camping in Woche, given that the locals there are not keen on trekking pack animals decreasing their already scarce grazing. The shot below was taken from this location, but we would be moving on and up!
Looking northeast up the Woche Chhu
300 meters up and 1 1/2 hours later, we came to this beautiful site above Green Lake (4440m). I wish I had made more of an effort to capture the entire scene, including all of the long, narrow lake, only the end of which you can see in the sun-streaked image below. Luckily, the following post has some of my favourite shots of the entire trek – and they capture Green Lake in the early morning, and the smaller lake just above it!
Green Lake campsite – above the Woche Chhu
gentian on the slopes of Green Lake above Woche
In the photo below, the lake is on the right-hand side, some of our horses are in the foreground, and others are on the side and in the background. In the middle is the blue cook tent, and behind it is a bit of the green dining tent with room for 16 trekkers!
Supper was usually around 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.; by 8:15, we had all retired to our tents for the warmth that the agency-supplied expedition sleeping bags provided. The temperatures would plummet once the sun disappeared behind the wall of rock below which we often camped. However, I am happy to report that I crawled out of my tent at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. with a bottle of frozen pee only once!
distance: 16 km. (Jordans); 18 km. (Lonely Planet); 16.9 (my Polar M430)
start point altitude: Narethang 4920 m
endpoint campsite: Tarina 3880m
high pass crossing: Karakachu La 5180m (my Garmin inReach); 5120 (Lonely Planet), 5020 (Jordans).
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many variations of the Snowman and of other treks.
Seehere for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser!
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
The first view out of the tent at Narethang – October 2019 – Huawei P30 shot
We got up to a light dusting of snow at our over-5100-meter Narethang campsite. As I looked around at the tents, I certainly got that exhilarating feeling of being on a high alpine expedition.
Narethang Camp – early morning in October
our Narethang camp – early morning in October
a few of our horses in the morning at Narethang
We zipped open the dining tent’s rear door to let in some air and some of the view. Soon, the sun poked over the mountain walls we were camped behind and streamed into the tent.
Our Narethang dining tent at breakfast
A typical breakfast on the trek was a bowl of cereal or oatmeal – either the watery gruel supplied by the cook team or the Quaker Oats-like stuff I had brought from home. I supplemented the oatmeal with some of my supply of nuts, raisins, cranberries, and dried blueberries. My from-home peanut butter also came in handy! Here, I spread it on some Indian flatbread called chapati. What I didn’t finish for breakfast, I would put in a Ziploc bag to have as a snack later in the morning.
My breakfast plate at Narethang – oatmeal and chapati with peanut butter
Snowman Trek – Day 14 – Narethang to Tarina
We set off from our Narethang camp, knowing that our high pass of the day would be coming up very soon in the day. 1 1/4 hours and 250 meters in elevation later, there we were at Karakachu La. [The Lonely Planet guide to Bhutan calls it Kang Karchung La.] In the image below, the red arrow indicates the location of the pass on the horizon.
heading for Karakachu La from Narethang
A bit further up the trail to the pass, I turned back to where we had come from. Our Narethang campsite is on the horizon – i.e. the dead center of the image – and some of my fellow trekkers are coming my way.
Looking back at the trail from Narethang
Only the last twenty minutes or so were a bit steep; we came at it from the bottom left of the image and would end up at the pass on the right-hand side. There we would find the customary laptse (i.e.stone cairns) and prayer flags. Fewer clouds would have been nice, but as it was, the views were excellent.
Fellow trekkers approaching Karakachu La
Prayer flags at Karakachu La above Narethang
Karakachu La – laptse with strings of prayer flags
Taking in the view at Karakatchu La
When I looked back at the southwest to where we had come from, I saw the two small lakes below.
One last look west from Karakachu La
Then I turned northeast for a view of the plateau-like terrain we would be walking into, at least for a while. We were at 5180 meters; by the end of the day, we’d be at 3880 at our Tarina campsite. That is a drop of 1300 meters!
a first view east from Karakachu La
On the horizon were peaks with names like Teri Kang (7300m) and Jejakangphu (7100m), and to our left (not visible in the image below) was Tsenda Kang (6400 m). The image below captures a bit of the peak experience we had!
zooming in on some of the peaks east of Karakachu La
the trail down from Karakachu La
As we made our way down, we experienced our first serious traffic in days! First, a yak train came towards us; it was on its way to Laya.
Yaks from Lunana heading west to Karakachu La
A while later, this team of pack horses and their owners came by. The yaks may also have been theirs; if so, they were well-trained and stuck to the trail on their own!
We continued our gradual descent, unaware that the most spectacular view of the trek was coming up. It was a view that the dog sitting without a seeming care in the world on his flat rock perch had as his own until our arrival. I imagined him to be a Buddha sitting there, and the words “Be here now” came to mind. He didn’t even budge as we walked by, unthreatened by our presence. What was he doing there?
descending to the Po Chhu flood plain from Karakachu La
a free-roaming dog surveying his Himalayan domain
From the dog, my eyes and mind moved on to the view below. We were looking north to the Bhutan-Tibet border and a snowcapped string of 7000-meter peaks, the single most impressive stretch of rock we had seen so far.
What the dog was looking at from his rock perch on the side of the trail to Tarina
The river streaming from the two glacial lakes visible in the image above is the west branch of the Pho Chhu, which flows by Punakha less than seventy kilometres to the southwest. [The main branch of the Pho Chhu we would get to know better in days to come as we walked into the heart of Lunana.
Note: The Lonely Planet guide to Bhutan refers to the river here as the Tang Chhu, and not the Pho. The lack of uniformity of names or their spellings can get confusing and affect the information you get when googling. Use a different spelling or a different name, and you come up with a different set of links! Google Earth calls the river the Po Chu.
satellite view – Karakachu La North to the Tibet border
trekkers heading down to the Po Chhu valley floor – shot with the Huawei P30
As we headed down to the valley floor of the Po Chhu, some 800 meters below, we were passed by an eight-person trekking group from Switzerland. We moved to the upside of the trail as their horse team came our way. Here is the video I posted on YouTube –
Two horses coming up from the Po Chhu valley floor – shot with my Sony RX100
And then it was some serious downhill walking. I lengthened the trekking poles a few centimetres and let gravity do some of the work as I danced my way down, down, down for over an hour until we came to the bottom. Four hours after leaving Karakachu La, we stopped for lunch in a flat open space on the west side of the river. It was the first of a few which showed evidence of use by trekking parties in the past. (What evidence? Badly hidden piles of garbage left behind.)
The valley floor trail runs along river right (i.e.the west side) of the Po Chhu in a southeasterly direction. Some sections, like the one in the image below, were a muddy mess; others were packed sand and gravel and nicer to walk on.
along the Po Chhu trail to the Tarina campsite
Just before we got to our site, we crossed the river and continued on for less than a kilometre. We could see that the camp was already set up. The tent crew had done it again!
Tarina campsite – a morning view from the northwest
Google Versus Apple Satellite Views of the Pho and the Tarina Campsite:
Both Google and Apple have 3D satellite views of our planet that provide a different perspective on things. While a comparison may be unfair since the Google view is zoomed in a bit more than the Apple view, I find the Apple Maps 3D look more appealing. Until this post, I have been going the Google Earth in Chrome route; I’ll have to remember to check out the Apple view more often!
Google Earth 3D View:
Tarina campsite Google Earth satellite view
Apple Maps 3D View:
Apple satellite view of the Po headwaters and Tarina campsite
start point altitude: Rodophu 4220m (my Garmin device)/ 4215 m (Jordans guidebook) ); 4160m (Lonely Planet’s Guide to Bhutan 2017 – the camp it mentions is below the bridge))
endpoint campsite: Narethang 4920 m;
high pass crossing: Tsemo La 4885 m;
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman Trek, as well as others.
Seehere for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser!
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
An interesting day coming up! Usually, the pass of the day is also the high point and by the day’s end you find yourself at a campsite a few hundred meters lower in altitude. On this day our pass – Tsemo La – was at about 4900 m and that is where we would mostly stay for the rest of the day. Our campsite was actually about twenty meters higher than the pass!
Robophu to Tsemo La to Narethang
a horseshoe job in the field – Robophu campsite
looking east at our Robophu camp- early morning
There was some frost on our tents when we first got up but by the time we left the early morning sun was drying them out. The first hour involved a fairly steep 250-meter climb up to the point you see in the image below. Down on the flood plain of the Rodo Chhu, you can see our campsite; the tents are still up!
looking back from the south at our Robophu campsite after our initial steep climb
Then, as the topo map shows, the ascent became more gradual as we made our way up a wide valley towards our pass of the day, Tsemo La. Along the way, we saw more of those alpine “beacons”, the Rheum nobile or “chogo metho” as the locals call them. Autumn was definitely in the air!
a trail beacon below Tsemo La – or Rheum nobile (aka Sikkim rhubarb)
Approaching Tsemo La:
The pass is at 4885m (my Garmin); 4905m (Jordans). The next two images show some of the final terrain we covered to get there. Once there, we found the usual stone cairn (laptse is the local term) and the strings of prayer flags. As for the spectacular mountain views – not so much. During the three hours that it had taken us to get there, the clouds have moved in and covered the nearby peaks that would dazzle on a clear day.
approaching Tsemo La, our high pass for the day
Tsemo La coming up – a switchback trail to the pass
the view from Tsemo La of the top of the valley we had walked up from Rodophu
enjoying the view from Tsemo La – on the way to Narethang
Our 800-meter ascent from the river floor done, the day’s hard work was replaced by an undulating trail that went up and down but never by more than 100 meters or so until we got to our 4900-meter campsite on a high alpine plateau. The satellite image below conveys some of the differences between morning and afternoon.
Along the way, we got some beguiling but never quite revealed views of striking peaks to the east and north.
taking in the view after crossing Tsemo La
panoramic view as we head to Lunana country from Tsemo La
Within a half-hour after leaving the pass, we stopped for lunch. The eye-popping blue of the trumpet-shaped flowers of the gentian plant caught my eye on the edge of the meadow where we had stopped. While we sipped on our post-lunch tea, the tent crew came by with a dozen of our pack horses. We would find most of our tents up when we got there a couple of hours later!
gentian on the mountainside at 4500 m
some of our horse team passing by on the way to Narethang
the trail to Narethang two hours after crossing Tsemo La
By 4 we were at our Narethang campsite. For the second day in a row, I forgot to take some pix of the camp as we walked into it. Here is one from the next morning –
our Narethang campsite the next morning
Coming up – the most spectacular day of the trek so far with some incredible WOW moments as we walked into one stupendous view after another.
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman Trek and others.
See here for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser!
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O!)
Note: elevation is in feet, not meters!
This would prove to be the most challenging day of the trek. I was dragging my butt by the end, and my legs felt like lead! Maybe it had something to do with the 600-meter drop in altitude as we left Laya and walked down the trail on the east side of the Mo Chhu. Then we regained all 600 meters plus another 400 by the time we got to our campsite. The Rodophu campsite is at 4220m, halfway up the Rodo Chhu.
Satellite view – Laya to Rodophu
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Locals Waiting For Helicopter With Dignitaries
We left Laya shortly after 8:00. The weather was mostly overcast, with an occasional patch of blue and a burst of sunshine. Unfortunately, we would bid a sad goodbye and wishes for improved health to one member of our trekking group. She had developed a respiratory problem and was coughing fitfully. The doctor at the Laya health clinic had recommended a descent down to Punakha, some two days to the south, where more extensive tests and help could be given.
Day 12 – getting ready to leave Laya.
As we left the village, we walked through the Laya school grounds, where the staff and students were waiting for the arrival of some dignitaries. Flags festooned the perimeter, and chairs were arranged in a U-shape in the open space.
Set up in the yard were also the yak fibre tents traditionally used by the Layaps when taking their yaks to distant pastures. The Canadian equivalent situation would be southern politicians flying into an Indian reserve (in Canada, we refer to it as a First Nation) and finding teepees or wigwams set up and elders walking around with feather headdresses.
I wondered if the Layaps were expected to put up these tents and wear those comical hats whenever politicians from other ethnic groups are helicoptered in from Thimphu? It would appear so.
Laya school staff waiting for visiting dignitaries in the schoolyard
teachers at Laya School waiting for dignitaries to arrive
To stress the traditional Layap culture, the girls were dressed up in a yak fibre one-piece black woollen jacket/shirt decorated with vertical stripes on the bottom half. Completing the look is hair worn long and covered with the bamboo hat with a long spike on top.
If the men in the image above are Layap, their basic garment is a long-sleeved linen gown coloured red and saffron. [Given their garments, the males might be Ngalop teachers or administrators from the south.]
Layap schoolgirls in traditional clothing for visiting politicians
locals waiting for the arrival of dignitaries at Laya
The photos above and below contrast the traditional Layap look with a modern one!
the last goodbye as we leave Laya for Rodophu
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Leaving Laya
As you leave Laya, a stone archway with a few strings of prayer flags highlights the way out.
fellow trekkers passing through the main gate to Laya
Not too long afterward, I heard the sound of a helicopter, and I assumed it was bringing in for the morning or the day those dignitaries – probably politicians – from down south. Not for them, a two-day journey up from Punakha that involves a final four-hour uphill walk from the end of the road!
And then I saw this guy in the image below. He was carrying a refrigerator up to Laya! Wow! He probably got it in Thimphu and then was able to use vehicle transport until the end of the road at Koina. Why couldn’t that fridge have been on that helicopter with those politicians? Laya has had electricity since 2017, so the fridge would be plugged in somewhere in Laya by the end of the day!
a Layap hauling a refrigerator up to Laya from the end of the road north of Koina
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To The Army Camp/Permit Checkpoint
It is an easy walk downhill, especially if you use trekking poles. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get to the army camp on the east side of the Mo Chhu, where permits are checked. While our guide took care of the legalities, everyone enjoyed a sunny break from the usual clouds.
satellite image of the trail south of Laya
Bhutan Takchenkhar Army Camp and Checkpoint
Snowman trekking group at rest at the army camp and permit checkpoint
And then it was through the gate on the south side of the complex and onto the descending trail, occasionally somewhat muddy thanks to the rain and the volume of pack animals using the path.
the south gate of the army checkpoint to Laya
a muddy section of trail to Gasa south of the army camp
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The Side Trail To The Rodo Chhu
About 2 1/2 hours after leaving Laya, we came to a junction in the trail. If we continued straight, we would be heading south to Koina and Gasa. We took the left (that is, east) side trail away from the Mo Chhu valley and began an initially steep upward curl towards the side valley – that of the Rodo Chhu. Our next camp was located a few kilometres up this valley.
the trail for Lunana from Laya – the Snowman Trek
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Varying Trail Conditions Up The Rodo Chhu Trail
Parts of the trail to Lunana were packed dirt and easy to walk; other sections, the ones through forested areas, were often muddy and meant we were back to stepping from stone to stone to avoid the mess below. A couple of times, we moved to the upper side of the trail while yak caravans on the way to Laya or Gasa came at us from the east. One 200-meter stretch was wiped out thanks to a landslide. See below for pix …
Yaks approaching from Lunana district as we head east
a section of trail above the Rodo Chhu on the way to Rodophu – the slash in the middle of the image!
a section of the trail through the forested slopes above the Rodo Chhu
It started to rain in mid-afternoon after our lunch break. This time I would not assume that it was just a short shower, so I slipped on the rain pants as well as the rain jacket. Good call – it rained for the final hour into camp!
a section of the Snowman trail to Rodophu destroyed by a landslide – See here for a Google Earth view of that landslide
landslide area on the Rodo Chhu trail (left side of the river in the image above)
Occasionally, the path took us closer to the Rodo Chhu, a stream coming down from the glacier on the west flank of Tsenda Kang. It reminded me of some rivers I have walked up in the Canadian Rockies; it had the same energy and off-the-beaten-track feel.
the Rodo Chhu on a rainy afternoon in October
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Approaching Our Rodophu Campsite
About a kilometre before the campsite, we crossed a substantial wooden bridge to river left of the Rodo Chhu (i.e. the south side). It had taken us about 3.5 hours to walk up the river valley after turning off from the main trail to Gasa.
approaching our Rodophu campsite
Not soon enough, the campsite appeared in the mist ahead. I had struggled to keep up with the others after lunch and was happy to see the end of what turned out to be my single most tiring day of the trek. I didn’t even get a shot of the campsite that afternoon. That would have to wait until the following day!
As the satellite image below makes clear, the Rodophu campsite is about halfway up the length of the Rodo Chhu. An interesting day trip for a group with days to burn would be a hike up to the foot of the glacier below Tsenda Kang. We were on a tighter schedule. The next day we would head up to Tsemo La SE of our camp and then remain at 4900 meters for the rest of the day the entire way to our next campsite. See the next post for the views!
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again for letting me post them, O!)
A free day in Laya Village!
It is a settlement of about 1100 inhabitants, who are known as Layaps (a Dzongkha term and not theirs). Like the dominant cultural and political group, the Ngalop, who migrated into what is now Bhutan around the year 900 C.E., the Layaps also migrated from Tibet but 600 years later – i.e. around 1500 C.E. They apparently call their place a beyul, one of the hidden valleys of Himalayan Buddhist myth mentioned by the Vajrayana Buddha – known as Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche – as a sacred refuge in times of trouble.
The village faces south and is built on a gently sloped mountainside at about 3800 meters. That makes it the highest all-year-round settlement in Bhutan. It was also the largest single settlement we visited on our Snowman Trek. All the others are smaller, and many – like Chozo and Thanza – are abandoned in the winter as people move down to less severe weather.
Interactive Google Earth Satellite view of Laya area – see here
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Changes To Its Traditional Culture
our Laya lodge-keeper with a traditional Lay-up skirt and hat
The traditional culture remained relatively undisturbed until about thirty years ago and the arrival of the first of many western visitors, most often trekkers on a route from Drugyel Dzong past Jomolhari and then up to their village. It is this trek that my ten previous posts describe. Profound changes have taken place over the past generation or two. Electricity arrived in 2017.
Road construction north of Gasa means that what was once a relatively isolated and difficult-to-get-to village is now a four-hour walk to the current end of the gravel road at Koina. While this might make it less alluring to trekkers, the locals like it! A Kuensel article from 2017 included these comments –
A villager, Rinchen, said although the incomplete farm road remains blocked during the monsoon, it helps them in the winter. “Most Layaps migrate to Punakha and Wangdue in winter and we transport all necessary goods to last a year when we return home. Farm roads have helped us immensely.”
Another villager, Pem Zam, 21, said the farm road would not only benefit Layaps but also visitors to the locality. “Even our horses were spared from carrying huge loads for days,” said Pema.
Residents said the farm road would help in reducing the inflation rate in Laya. See here for the article in Kuensel.
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Local Sources of Wealth
The economy has been supercharged by the presence of a medicinal fungus known as cordyceps, which has high demand in China as a traditional medicine. These days it goes for $10,000-$50,000 US a kilogram. It is Bhutanese gold, and those who mine it get incredibly rich! The village of Laya is one of the centers of its gathering.
image from Kuensel article linked below – villagers searching for cordyceps
yaks coming from Lunana on the east side of Karakachu La
More traditional forms of wealth are the ownership of yaks and horses. In his Bhutan trekking guidebook, Bart Jordans provides numbers for each in Laya – “yaks (2706 in 2015) and horses (1107 in 2015)” and notes that their numbers are growing.
Given other ways to make a living and reduced reliance on pack animals by traders to move goods thanks to the roads getting ever closer to the village, the value of yet more yaks must be declining. Even the yak fibre to make traditional Layap clothing has been replaced by readily available and cheaper nylon and polyester clothing. See the clothing worn by the cordyceps gatherers and the Layap woman in the photos above.
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The Layap Woman’s Traditional Hat
Google the term Layap and guess what comes up! See here! Why is it always those hats? And – just where do the Layap males fit into the picture?
the Layap women’s conical hat
The tourist brochures and the Bhutan Tourist Council still promote a Laya that no longer exists. In one TCB posting, I read -“this village will mesmerize you with their unique culture.” Unless it refers specifically to those conical hats, I must have missed it!
And those conical hats worn by women probably just come out those days when they perform traditional dances for foreign trekkers or greet visiting politicians from Thimphu who had helicoptered in for the morning for some school ceremony (as happened the following day when we left Laya).
See here for an April 2018 article- ‘Laya’s Traditional Hat Under Threat Of Disappearance,” or access a PDF copy here.
Layap schoolgirls in traditional clothing for visiting politicians from Thimphu
Foreign travel agencies still promote a once-upon-a-time Laya as a remote settlement where age-old traditions still hold. This promo image from the UK’s KE Aventure is typical –
No mention of electricity or of the road from Punakha within a four-hour walk of the village – and there are those hats! Given the mostly clouded-over and rainy conditions we had during the ten days of our trek from Shana to Laya, the mist in the background seems appropriate!
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Things To Do On Our Free Day in Laya!
It was our first day off since Jomolhari, and I was looking forward to it! Time to –
ramble around the village for photo ops.
find some supplementary food to take along for the second half of the trek
wash at least socks and put them out to dry in the sun,
sign up for five minutes in the shower tent set up by the kitchen crew
make use of my inReach Explorer+ to send some emails to the folks back home
recharge my iPhone, iPad, camera batteries, and my 26,800 Mh Anker battery pack
I had lots of stuff to do that did not involve adding to my cardio load!
Unfortunately, the weather was more of the same! It had rained overnight! It was raining at 7:00 a.m. as I crawled out of the tent for the dining room and breakfast. It started raining again just before noon. Luckily, we had just returned from a little ramble around the village.
Intermittent rain in the afternoon meant I did not bother with those socks! I did get my five minutes in the shower, the first in a week. It felt great to stand underneath the stream of hot water provided by our kitchen guys, Karma and Kinley. I also sent out some emails and got those devices recharged!
Thanks to all the rain, main street Laya was a total mess. That is it in the image below!
the very muddy main street in Laya
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A Walk Up To the Jigme Dorje Park Office
We went for a walk to the east side of Laya, an excellent vantage point overlooking the village from near the Park Office. Along the way, we got the following shots –
boys behind the window in a Laya house
Laya Village boys
Laya woman fetching a stray horse
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A Visit To The Laya Gompa
The outside gate to the gompa was open, so we wandered in. No one was around, and most of the buildings seemed to be abandoned.
prayer flags above the Laya Gompa
Laya gompa
Laya Gompa – window frame
Laya Gompa – wooden door and frame
Laya Gompa prayer wheel wall
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Creating A New Tourist Attraction – The Royal Highlander Festival
When we got to the Park Office, some of us turned back while the others continued on to a plateau just above the village accessed by a trail behind the Office. They saw locals – mostly women – doing some work in preparation for the Fourth Annual Royal Highlander Festival in October.
My somewhat skeptical take on it is that the Bhutan Tourist Council is trying to create a two-day tourist attraction out of something that does not exist anymore. However, here is a more effusive positive account of the event – Livin’ It Up In Laya At the 2017 Royal Highlander Festival. The writer also describes her hike up to Laya from Gasa.
the Jigme Dorje Park Office on the east edge of Laya
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Laya’s School
looking down on Laya’s school
Laya schoolchildren – taking a break from their ball game
Layap children near the laya school
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The Afternoon Shopping Trip
a horse train walking through Laya
In mid-afternoon, I went to a small shop with one of the guides to buy some “Made In India” packages of spiced peanuts. Purpose: to add to the bland twice-daily servings of rice and make it more enticing! I bought sixteen packages; I hoped that would be enough for the rest of the trek! There would be no more shops until Chozo, six days away.
Main Street Laya – on our way to a sundry shop for some food items
Laya shopkeeper
woman and child in the Laya shop near the school in Laya
a young boy in Laya – note the cell phone in his hand!
Layap mother and child in front of their home
lower Laya – the downtown area
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Back At Our Laya Camp Spot:
Our horse handlers’ job was done. They and their horses had been with us for seven days since Jomolhari Base Camp and would be returning the next day. We said our goodbyes at a brief tip-giving and thank-you ceremony during a rain-free part of the afternoon. Already arranged were the services of a Laya horse team that would take us to Chozo, deep in Lunana country to the east.
We spent a fair bit of time in the second-floor dining room of the lodge we tented behind. The shoes-off policy resulted in cold – but unmuddied! – feet. The room had electric lighting and a couple of wall plugs where we could recharge our devices. Those plugs were going all day as people brought in their smartphones, iPads and cameras. And not just the trekkers – but the support staff too. I often saw the horse handlers – the young ones for sure – with phones in their hands as they guided their horses along the trail. It brought home the seismic culture shift that Steve Jobs ushered in with the first iPhone in 2007! Bhutan has not been immune.
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The Wangchuk Dynasty
the dining room of our lodge in Laya – it had electricity
The royal family – the Wangchuk Dynasty that started in 1905 – remains very popular in Bhutan – or at least in the western part of Bhutan that we were in. I cannot speak for their popularity in the south or the east of the country, where people other than Ngalops live.
Behind the lodge was an impressive collection of empty glass beer bottles! Welcome to the modern world!
an impressive bottle collection behind the lodge in Laya
our lower Laya tent site behind the lodge
Before the day ended, the kitchen crew had gathered the food supplies for the rest of the trek – i.e. twelve days. The supplies they are checking came up from Punakha to Gasa to the end of the road at Koina. From there, horses were used. Another visitor – a Yangphel higher-up from the head office in Thimphu had also arrived in Laya. He was there to deal with another group – apparently, a group of army guys doing a preliminary test of a Snowman Trek Run. [See the post on Chozo for more information.] However, he had somehow managed to bring from Thimphu a celebratory German-style chocolate cake for us!
the kitchen crew checking out the food supplies for the second half of our Snowman trek
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The Road Coming Up To Laya:
In the old days – before the construction of the 76-kilometer farm road from Punakha to Gasa – it took residents of Laya five days to make the journey down to Punakha. Over the years, the road surface from Punakha up to Gasa has been upgraded; it is now blacktopped. These days, after the Layap traveller walks down to Gasa,the trip to Punakha takes as little as three or four hours. [In 2018, a taxi ride from Punakha to Gasa cost Nu 600 (US$8.) though that price is undoubtedly not the one “high value, low impact” foreigners would pay.
The Roads to Laya and Chebisa from Gasa And The Demise of The Snowman Trek
The actual length of the trip still depends, of course, on road conditions. Blockages are not uncommon, thanks to monsoon-related unstable terrain, landslides, and washed-away bridges. One of the members of our group had to leave us at Laya for health reasons; it took her two full days to get down to Punakha, partly by foot and the rest by vehicle. She said that road work on numerous stretches of the road meant long waits.
Since 2017 the stretch from Gasa to Laya has been worked on, and when we were there in October 2019, the road had apparently reached up to Koina. I was told it takes a villager about four hours to get to the road at Koina or Tongchudra (Tongshida). So, if the conditions are ideal and transport is available, Laya to Punakha can be done in a day!
The final 28-kilometer stretch of road to Laya is scheduled to be finished in 2022. Less than five years after the hydro poles and electricity entered the village, locals – and trekkers on what they thought was a visit to a remote section of the Himalayas – will have to get used to vehicles parked in front of Laya lodges. [See this Kuensel article – Road is reaching Laya, meaning change is coming – for more details.]
It will take some time for travel brochures to shift from extolling the exotic local culture of the Layaps to presenting the reality of the completed road and its impact on Laya. By 2022 Chebisa may also be connected to Gasa with the completion of another road project. It will redefine the first half of the traditional Snowman Trek. The second half, the section we were starting the following day, is safe for now – at least until a planned road reaches deep into Lunana.
Bhutan has come a long way in the past fifty years. Contrast today’s road system with the one which existed in 1969, when it was still a kingdom, and the entire northern half of the country was without even rough gravel roads.
Here is a YouTube video from the 2019 Highlander Festival –
And here is a graph illustrating altitudes at the remaining seven high passes and eleven campsites. There are no high passes on Day 12 – just 600 meters down and then 1000 back up!
Laya To Upper Sephu high passes and campsites graph
high pass crossing: none on this day (see here for the high passes we had done)
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman, as well as many other treks.
See here for the Google Earth satellite view of the day’s walk. Zoom in and you can see traces of the trail to Laya, especially as you approach the village. The Apple satellite imagery is different but also very good.
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
I crawled out of the tent shortly before 7 and could feel the rays of the sun, a novel experience on this first half of the trek. Looking north towards Gangcheta, aka Great Tiger Mountain, I was able to capture a bit of the rainbow’s splendour, even if the mountain peak was not cooperating!
Limithang campsite bathed in the morning light
Limithang camp area – horses in the morning
This would be the last day of work for these horses. Their handlers would take them back to the settlements near Jomolhari Base Camp, from where we had set off with them on Day 4. Instead of the six days it took us to get to Laya, it would only take them two to get back home! Impressive!
Hopefully, there would be another trekking group whose gear they would be able to haul. I was told that they get $20.US a day for each horse. While I’ll admit I am skeptical about the sum, if it is correct then they were going home with a pile of money. ($120. a horse x 43 horses!) The horses provide a nice cash infusion at a time of the year when the harvest is done and everyone in upcountry Bhutan is preparing for the winter.
a horse with a decorative headcover at Limithang camp
Limithang camp in the morning – an hour after the rainbow sky photo above / trekkers ready to go
The trail starts off on river right but less than a kilometer from the campsite we crossed over to the other side and continued for an hour on river left all the way to its confluence with another river. There we crossed over to river left. At this point, we were at 3800 m and would mostly remain within fifty meters above or below this elevation until we got to Laya. The elevation stats were as follows: 80 ascent; 380 descent.
A Geographical/Cultural Tangent!
As for the river we walked down, just below Laya it merges with the Mo Chhu, the river which flows by the west side of the Punakha Dzong. A week later as we walked up Lunana district, we would get to know the other river which frames the Punakha Dzong on the east. It is the Pho Chhu.
The confluence of the Mo Chhu and Pho Chhu at Punakha Dzong
[Chhu is the Dzongkha word for “river” while Mo and Pho mean “mother’ and “father”. Dzongkha is the language of the Ngalop ethnic group of Tibetan origin who are the dominant political and cultural group in Bhutan.
The Ngalop were the ones who built all the dzongs, the fortress monasteries from the 1600s, a time when various Tibetan Buddhist sects fought each other and other Buddhist invaders from Tibet for control of the space we now know as Bhutan. They live mostly in western and central Bhutan and are the ethnic group that tourists will come to associate with Bhutan itself, even though there are other major ethnic groups.
The situation reminded me somewhat of Myanmar with its dominant Bamar ethnic group surrounded on the periphery by people of a hundred other smaller ethnic identities. The big difference is that the Bamar constitute 68% of Myanmar’s population whereas the Ngalop people make up about 20% of Bhutan’s. (That figure can be pushed up to 50%. It all depends on how liberally you define Ngalop.)
It does put a different spin on the quaint traditional Ngalop clothing that we saw even our guides wearing on certain occasions. It left me wondering – Are all ethnic groups in Bhutan required to dress in Ngalop fashion? How do they feel about this? Let me know in the comment section below!]
Back To The Day’s Walk:
The expectation of an easy 11 km downhill walk to Laya was soon dispelled as there was a fair bit of scampering up and down hillsides. Much of the trail passes through heavily forested slopes along the river banks. Here is how well my Polar M430 was able to connect with the GPS satellites thanks to the dense tree cover we walked under!
Not a shining moment for the M430 though but understandable given that it is a fitness tracker better known for heart rate recording. My Garmin inReach Explorer, however, was able to record an elevation point each minute.
peaks shrouded in mist on the way to Laya from Limithang
Another clouded-over day on our ten-day walk from Shana – and another day of mountain peak views that looked like the above image. I couldn’t help but contrast this with the excellent weather I have always experienced on treks in October and November in the Nepal Himalayas. For the last hour, it rained more heavily but my calculation at the beginning that it would stop soon turned out to be a bad one! While I had slipped on my rain jacket, I did not bother with my rain pants. My bottom half got soaked!
We arrived in Laya around noon, about four hours after having left our Limithang campsite. As we approached the village, there was a fork in the trail. The left-hand one leads to the upper village. We took the right-hand fork and soon found ourselves in front of an ornately decorated building in the Ngalop style. I never did find out if it was a temple (lhakhang in Dzongkha ) or not. One of our guides took the opportunity for a group photo for a mostly successful first half of our trek. (One of our trekkers had developed a severe cough and respiratory problems and would leave the trek here, heading down the road to Punakha and Thimphu for medical treatment.)
some of the 16 in our trekking group on arrival at Laya – the photo is not mine
I took the following image the next morning from higher up and to the east. It captures most of Laya. Click on the image to see:
the exact location of the beautiful piece of traditional Ngalop architecture above
our Laya tent site location behind the lodge for two nights
a view of Laya from the hill to the east
Our campsite was located behind a lodge whose toilet facilities and dining room we made use of during our two-night stay in Laya. At least I think it was a lodge! None of the commercial buildings in Laya Village have signs up advertising their service.
our Laya tent site behind a lodge
We had finished the first half of our Snowman Trek. Still to come were the following:
six days to and in Lunana District with Chozo, not far from Thanza, as our rest day stop
five days to head south over the high altitude and most dramatic section of the Snowman
If it is true that the eastern Himalayan weather tends to be wetter and cloudier than that in Nepal, we would have better luck for the next twelve days. The relative lack of mountain views that characterized our Shana-to-Laya trek would thankfully be replaced by more blue skies, clear views, and some incredible vistas.
But first, we had a rest day in Laya! See the next post for some pix of Laya village.
Maps: Bart Jordans’ Trekking In Bhutan has some useful overview maps of the many possible variations of the Snowman Trek, as well as others.
See here for a Google Earth view of the day’s walk. It helps to use the Google Chrome browser! Zoom in and you can see traces of the trail to Sinche La.
I used a Sony RX100 III to capture most of the images you’ll see below; a fellow trekker’s Huawei P30 captured the others. (Thanks again, O, for letting me use them!)
satellite view of the trail from Robluthang to Limithang
Robluthang Campsite:
horses waiting for the day’s work assignment at Robluthang camp
Day 9 – horses ready and waiting for the day’s carry to Limithang
On The Way To Sinche La:
The highest pass of the trek so far was on the menu for this day. Sinche La at 5000 m was just 20 meters higher than our very first pass, Nyile La which we did the day we left Jomolhari Base Camp. Over the first five hours, we curled our way into a side valley from our Robluthang campsite and then walked the left side of a valley to the bottom of the slope with Sinche La. As the images show, we were not blessed with a sunny day and blue skies.
walking up the side of a glacial stream an hour after leaving Robluthang
finding our way through a scree field on the way to Sinche La
taking a wee break on the way to Sinche La from Robluthang
Along the way, we passed by some plants unlike any I had never seen before in the Himalayas. I was amazed that they were there at all in a pretty inhospitable spot. Maybe the mist from those clouds we were walking through keeps them alive! I would later find out that it is a form of rhubarb native to the Himalayas.
we pass by a distinctive-looking plant – the Rheum Nobile – on the way to Sinche La
The Wikipedia entry on Rheum nobile describes it this way –
…a giant herbaceous plant native to the Himalaya, from northeastern Afghanistan, east through northern Pakistan and India, Nepal, Sikkim (in India), Bhutan, and Tibet to Myanmar, occurring in the alpine zone at 4000–4800 m altitude.[2]
It is an extraordinary species of rhubarb (genus Rheum). At 1–2 m tall, R. nobile towers above all the shrubs and low herbs in its habitat, and it is visible across valleys a mile away
It is as if it were a beacon guiding travellers! Below is another one we passed by;
the Rheum Nobile -aka the Sikkim rhubarb – on the way to Sinche la
Approaching Sinche La:
looking back at the valley we have walked up to get to Sinche La
A half-hour later the pass was finally in view. As I caught my breath for a moment for the final push to the top, I watched our lunch team horses continue upwards.
horses approaching Sinche La from Robluthang
Under The Tarp At Sinche La:
While the original plan had been to have lunch on the downside of Sinche La, our guide made the decision to stop just below the pass for lunch instead. While half the group was already standing by the chorten at the pass, the other half was some distance behind. Instead of having us wait at the pass until they arrived and then continue on down on the other side, we set up the lunch tables and chairs just below the chorten.
the lunch tent at Sinche La
We just happened to time lunch with a thirty-minute hail/snowstorm! Up went the blue tarp to cover two of the tables. Soon the green tarp went up too and more space was created. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had arrived and lunch was on!
photo by another one of the members of the trekking group
trekkers heading to Sinche La from the lunch shelter
After lunch was over we headed up to the chorten; the rain pants / rain jacket combo helped keep everyone dry and warm as we stood there for a minute or two.
standing at Sinche La and about to descent towards Limithang
Down To Limithang:
From that shot of the chorten at Sinche La, my camera was most untouched (and tucked away to keep it dry!) I did take a couple more photos that day. The first one below is of Gangcheta (aka Great Tiger Mountain) on the Bhutan-Tibet border, until now like a snow leopard pretty much a rumour only on our Snowman Trek.
a view of Gangcheta on the Tibet-Bhutan border after the start of our descent from Sinche La
The second shot was of a section of trail following a glacial stream. Not even any campsite shots on this day. The one below is of the next morning.
approaching Limithang from Sinche La
Limithang campsite – the next morning
The Limithang campsite is an open area sure to please tenters with its flatness and the horses with the availability of grass. Flowing down past the camp area was a river from the Tibet-Bhutan border that eventually ends up in the Mo Chhu, the river which flows by Punakha.
an afternoon view of Gangcheta from our Limithang campsite
Later when I looked at Polar fitness tracker stats for the day, the calorie output for the day was the largest of the trek so far, double the calorie expenditure of the day before!
Luckily, our walk the next day to Laya was really only a half-day. Also coming up was a rest day in Laya while we got ready for the next half of our Snowman Trek, into the remote Lunana region.
