Trail Diary Aug 30, 2026 • 7 Min Read
Trail Diary Aug 30, 2026 • 7 Min Read
I kept a notebook for the Langtang trek instead of trying to remember it later. Here's what's actually in it - blisters, dal bhat, and the one view that made the cold worth it.
I'm not a journal person. But a guide I trekked with years ago told me the trick to remembering a trek honestly - not the postcard version - is to write in it every night before you're too tired to be truthful. So this time I did. Here's more or less what's in the notebook, lightly cleaned up.
Left Kathmandu at 6:40am, later than planned because the jeep driver was waiting on one more passenger who didn't show. The road to Syabrubesi is rougher than I expected - about seven hours, most of it unpaved after Dhunche, and I regret the coffee I had before we left.
Started walking around 1pm. The trail follows the Langtang Khola the whole way, climbing through forest that's still properly green this time of year. Reached Lama Hotel just as it got dark, legs fine, ego slightly bruised by a Nepali family who overtook me on the last climb without appearing to breathe harder.
Colder than yesterday. You start noticing the tree line thinning out - pine gives way to rhododendron and birch, then to scrub. Passed the spot where the 2015 earthquake triggered a landslide that buried the old Langtang village; there's a small memorial there now. Nobody in our group said much walking past it.
New Langtang village, rebuilt a short way from the original site, is a proper Tamang village - stone houses, prayer wheels, yak herds on the hillside above. Had yak cheese for the first time with dinner. Verdict: sharper than I expected, in a good way.
Short day, only about three hours, which was welcome. Kyanjin Gompa sits at 3,870m and you feel it - not altitude sickness, just a heaviness in the legs on anything uphill. The monastery here is small and still active; an older monk let us look inside without much ceremony about it.
Spent the afternoon doing nothing, which is apparently the correct move at this altitude. Cloud cleared around 4pm and Langtang Lirung (7,227m) appeared directly above the village like it had just been switched on.
Cloud cleared around 4pm and Langtang Lirung appeared directly above the village like it had just been switched on.
Woke at 4:45am for the climb up Kyanjin Ri (4,773m) for sunrise. This was the hardest two hours of the trek by a wide margin - steep, thin air, and cold enough that my water bottle had a skin of ice on it by the top.
Worth it. The whole Langtang range catches the first light before anything else does, and for about ten minutes the valley below is still in shadow while the peaks are already gold. I didn't take as many photos as I meant to because I kept forgetting to.
Long descent day, retracing the route. Knees unhappy by the end. Stopped at the same teahouse in Lama Hotel as night one - same owner, who remembered we'd asked for extra chili the first time and had it ready without being asked.