Dhaulagiri Base Camp & French Pass Trek

The hardest trek we sell, and we will talk you out of it if we should

This page is going to spend more time on difficulty than on scenery, because that is the useful thing for a reader to know. The Dhaulagiri Circuit is routinely described as one of the hardest trekking routes in Nepal, and that description is accurate.

You cross French Pass at 5,360 m and Dhampus Pass at about 5,234 m within three days of each other, sleeping at over 5,000 m in the Hidden Valley in between. There are no lodges above Italian Base Camp, no villages for six days, no road, and no easy way off the route once you are committed to the gorge.

If you want an 8,000 m mountain at close range without this level of commitment, the Annapurna Circuit with Tilicho Lake crosses a comparable pass with lodges every night and a road never more than a day away. That is not a lesser trek; it is a different proposition.

What a supported camping expedition actually involves

Most trekkers in Nepal have only ever done teahouse trekking. This is a different activity and it is worth setting out plainly.

	This trek	A teahouse trek
Sleeping	Two-person tent on the ground, every night above Italian BC	A room with a bed
Eating	Cooked by our kitchen crew from carried supplies	Ordered from a lodge menu
Washing	A bowl of warm water outside the tent	A paid hot shower
Toilet	A toilet tent	A shared bathroom
Warmth	Your sleeping bag; there is no stove to sit by	A heated dining room in the evening
Crew	Guide, cook, kitchen hands and porters — often 8 to 12 people	A guide, sometimes a porter
If you want to stop	There is nowhere to stop	The next village

The crew is the reason this works. A well-run camping trek is more comfortable than people expect — hot food appears, tents are pitched before you arrive, and the kitchen is genuinely good. What it never is, is warm. At 5,050 m in a tent, your sleeping bag is the only heat source there is.

The altitude profile, and the one thing that goes wrong

The single greatest risk on this trek is being high for too long with no way to descend quickly.

From Italian Base Camp at 3,660 m you climb through Japanese Base Camp at 4,200 m to Dhaulagiri Base Camp at 4,750 m, then over French Pass at 5,360 m to sleep in Hidden Valley at around 5,050 m. That is three consecutive nights above 4,700 m with one pass already behind you and another in front.

The itinerary includes acclimatisation days at Italian Base Camp and Dhaulagiri Base Camp, and they are not optional. Anyone who is not acclimatising properly by Dhaulagiri Base Camp does not go over French Pass — the correct decision is to descend the way you came, and our guides are instructed to make it.

The reason this matters more than on other treks: once you are over French Pass, the only ways out are forward over Dhampus Pass or back over French Pass. There is no valley to walk down. That is why the decision is made before the pass, not after it.

The Chonbarden gorge

Above Italian Base Camp the route enters the Chonbarden gorge, and this is where the trek stops feeling like walking. The trail crosses glacier moraine, boulder fields and, depending on the season, sections of ice where the crew may fix a rope for security.

It is not technical climbing and you do not need mountaineering skills. You do need to be comfortable moving over unstable ground, using your hands occasionally, and being roped for short stretches if conditions require it. Crampons are carried and are sometimes used on the pass and in the gorge.

Hidden Valley, which is exactly what it sounds like

Over French Pass the route drops into a high basin at around 5,050 m ringed by peaks, with no permanent inhabitants, no vegetation to speak of and no route in or out except over a pass at either end. It is a genuine high desert and one of the strangest places in Nepal.

We camp there for a night. It is the coldest night of the trek by a considerable margin and, for most people who do this route, the one they remember.

Coming out into Mustang

Dhampus Pass drops you towards Marpha and Jomsom on the Kali Gandaki — apple orchards, a whitewashed Thakali village, and a sudden return to lodges, hot showers and other people after ten days of tents.

The contrast is one of the genuine pleasures of this route. Marpha is known for its apple brandy and for being one of the best-kept villages in Nepal, and arriving there off the Dhampus Pass is a considerably better way to see it than arriving by jeep.

From Jomsom you can fly to Pokhara — a short, dramatic, weather-dependent flight — or drive. We plan on the road and treat the flight as a bonus, because a weather-cancelled Jomsom flight at the end of a sixteen-day trip is a poor way to finish.

Who this is for, said plainly

• Right for you if you have crossed a 5,000 m pass before, you have camped at altitude, and you are comfortable being six days from a road.
• Wrong for you if this would be your first Nepali trek, or your first time above 4,500 m, or if you have not slept in a tent in cold conditions.
• A conversation if you have done Everest Base Camp or the Annapurna Circuit and want the next thing. Call us — we would rather assess it honestly than sell you a trip you will not enjoy.

Permits

• ACAP — the route exits through the Annapurna Conservation Area
• TIMS — Trekkers' Information Management System card

This is not a restricted area, so there is no agency-only permit. Both are included. The two-person minimum is ours, and on a trip requiring a full expedition crew it is not negotiable.

Season

This trek has the narrowest weather window of anything we run. April to May and October to early November, and within those, the middle weeks.

Too early in spring and the passes are deep in snow. Too late in autumn and the cold at 5,050 m becomes genuinely dangerous. Winter is out of the question, and the monsoon makes the lower approach dangerous and the gorge impassable. If your dates are fixed outside these windows, we will tell you to book something else.

Where this trek goes

• Muktinath & Jomsom — A temple at 3,800 m held sacred by Hindus and Buddhists alike, in the arid Kali Gandaki valley
• Pokhara — A lakeside town at 820 m with the Annapurnas 30 km away

Related activities: Trekking in Nepal, Mountaineering Expeditions.

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