Kathmandu Valley Rim Running Tour

 

Kathmandu is especially beautiful in the winter.

Deep in the gentle dusty chaos of the city, distracted by the multitude of sights, sounds and smells you might be forgiven for not looking up. But when you do you realise that the city is surrounded by a ring of hills rising up to just below 3000m, and beyond to the north the snow covered summits of Langtang and Ganesh Himal.

A network of trails along this ring of hills can be linked together to allow circumnavigation of the entire Kathmandu Valley. It makes for a 100 mile journey with a lot of ascent and descent. “It’s a great adventure,” says Lizzy. She should know setting an FKT on this route in April 2018, after a previous attempt in March 2016. It’s the perfect boost for your winter training or purely a nice experience in itself.

This running tour breaks the journey into manageable stages with time to enjoy the running, the views and the culture. Come and see for yourself! Pair it with Trail Running Nepal‘s iconic Stupa to Stupa Trail Marathon challenge for the ultimate exploration of the Kathmandu hills.

• Stupa to Stupa Trail Marathon (54 km and 34 km options) Swayambhu and Boudhanath are the two most important and iconic Stupas in Kathmandu. You start in the early morning at Swayambhu (nicknamed the monkey temple for reasons that will become obvious) and run to Boudhanath at the other side of the city … but the long way round … via 54km of hilly trails. With one big ascent at the beginning of the race to Jamacho Gumba the rest of the race is on beautiful mostly runnable trails skirting the edge of the valley rim. At a steady walking pace it can also be completed in under 12 hours. A great day out!
• 4-day running tour – We start at Mudkhu on the edge of the valley rim and follow the trails keeping as much as possible to the high ridges. We cross the highest summits of Kathmandu Valley including Shivapuri Peak (2732m), Champa Devi (2278m) and Phulchowki (2762)m and run through a wonderfully varied landscape – jungle forest to ridge trails to paddy fields. On a clear day it’s possible to see the big mountains from Manaslu and Annapurna to Ganesh Himal, Jugal Himal and Langtang Himal. Just beautiful! Accommodation is in comfortable hotels / lodges including one night in the guesthouse of Nedo Monastery.

The tour is led by Lizzy Hawker, and is based on a minimum group size of four participants, maximum ten. We’ll also invite one or two young girl Nepali runners to join us. Please email Lizzy for full details and costings.

Book here!

 

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KORA Explore offers several multi-day running camps in 2020 which will provide ideal training for the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa, as well as other multi-day or ultramarathon races. In particular these camps on the Kathmandu Valley Rim are a great preparation for these superb races organised by our partner Trail Running Nepal.

• Annapurna100 – 42 km, 55 km, 100 km – 25th – 27th October 2019
• Buddhist Stupa to Stupa Trail Marathon – 54 km & 34 km – TBC