The Dolpo region is located north of the Daulaghiri massif where the valleys over 4000m are home to a Tibetan population. The environment is wild and hostile, a few hundred people live all year in villages at an altitude of 4500m. They are farmers or semi-nomadic yak herders who exchange their grain for the salt from the mountain lakes of Tibet, they rely on yak caravans, essential for the people of Dolpo for transporting their merchandise. The only grain that grows at this altitude is barley, which after roasting and grinding to make flour is used to make tsampa, the staplefood in the region.

The highlights of this trek are the semi-desert landscape, the traditional villages of the Tarap valley unaffected by the modern world, monasteries and Lake Phoksundo’s turquoise waters reflecting the surrounding mountains.