Photo: Jay Ramji from UK · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized; shared under the same licence
Tsum Valley
A restricted side-valley off the Manaslu trail, to a monastery near Tibet
Tsum Valley is a 12-day round trip up a restricted side-valley of the Manaslu Circuit, following the Budhi Gandaki to Lokpha before climbing into Tsum itself and on to Mu Gompa (3,700m), a monastery founded in 1895 near the Tibetan border. It stays below 3,700m throughout, is rated moderate-hard, and requires its own Tsum Valley restricted-area permit alongside the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit.
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Route map
Waypoints
- Day 1 — Machha Khola 870 m
- Day 2 — Jagat 1,340 m
- Day 3 — Lokpha 2,240 m
- Day 4 — Chumling 2,386 m
- Day 5 — Chhokangparo 3,031 m
- Day 6 — Nile 3,361 m
- Day 7 — Mu Gompa 3,700 m
- Day 7 — Nile 3,361 m
- Day 8 — Chhokangparo 3,031 m
- Day 9 — Lokpha 2,240 m
- Day 10 — Jagat 1,340 m
- Day 11 — Machha Khola 870 m
Elevation profile
| Day | Place | Altitude | Gain from previous night |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machha Khola | 870 m | first night |
| 2 | Jagat | 1,340 m | +470 m |
| 3 | Lokpha | 2,240 m | +900 m |
| 4 | Chumling | 2,386 m | +146 m |
| 5 | Chhokangparo | 3,031 m | +645 m |
| 6 | Nile | 3,361 m | +330 m |
| 7 | Nile | 3,361 m | 0 m |
| 8 | Chhokangparo | 3,031 m | -330 m |
| 9 | Lokpha | 2,240 m | -791 m |
| 10 | Jagat | 1,340 m | -900 m |
| 11 | Machha Khola | 870 m | -470 m |
Terrain elevation interpolated between waypoints by SRTM30m — not the route's sourced altitudes. May read above or below maxAltitude/maxSleepAltitude (both cited, manual figures); render or label accordingly, do not treat as the same number.
Acclimatisation
1 night on this itinerary gains more than 500 m of sleeping altitude: Chhokangparo (+645 m). 0 of its 1 rest days follow the largest gains. The highest night is 3,361 m.
| Day | Sleeping at | Altitude | Gain from previous night | Rest day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machha Khola | 870 m | first night | |
| 2 | Jagat | 1,340 m | +470 m | |
| 3 | Lokpha | 2,240 m | +900 m | |
| 4 | Chumling | 2,386 m | +146 m | |
| 5 | Chhokangparo | 3,031 m | +645 m (above the 500 m guideline) | |
| 6 | Nile | 3,361 m | +330 m | |
| 7 | Nile | 3,361 m | 0 m | Rest day |
| 8 | Chhokangparo | 3,031 m | -330 m | |
| 9 | Lokpha | 2,240 m | -791 m | |
| 10 | Jagat | 1,340 m | -900 m | |
| 11 | Machha Khola | 870 m | -470 m |
Cited to the Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines (2024): above 3,000 m, do not increase sleeping elevation by more than 500 m per day, and take a rest day every 3–4 days. WMS itself notes that terrain often makes strict adherence impossible.
This is itinerary information, not medical advice, and not clearance to trek. Acclimatisation varies between individuals.
Your trip, day by day — all 12 days, travel included
Every day of the 12-day trip in the order it happens, including the flights, drives and rest days that have no walking stage. These are trip day numbers. The next section numbers walking days instead, starting again at 1, so a day number here and a walking day number there are not the same day.
- Day 1 of 12
Kathmandu — Arrival & Permits
Arrive in Kathmandu and go through the permit process — a Tsum Valley restricted-area permit and the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit are both required — ahead of the drive to the trailhead.
- Day 2 of 12
Drive to Machha Khola (870m)
The drive from Kathmandu follows the Budhi Gandaki upstream, in places reaching Machha Khola (870m) directly by road rather than stopping short at Soti Khola.
- Day 3 of 12
Machha Khola to Jagat (1,340m)
The trail follows the river gorge upstream, crossing suspension bridges, to Jagat (1,340m), the checkpoint where permits for the restricted area are verified.
- Day 4 of 12
Jagat to Lokpha (2,240m)
The trail continues up the Budhi Gandaki before turning off the main Manaslu trail at Lokpha (2,240m), into the restricted Tsum side-valley.
- Day 5 of 12
Lokpha to Chumling (2,386m)
Into Tsum proper, the trail climbs to Chumling (2,386m), the valley's first village, set at the base of a large chorten.
- Day 6 of 12
Chumling to Chhokangparo (3,031m)
The trail continues up-valley to Chhokangparo (3,031m), the largest village in upper Tsum, spread across the widening valley floor.
- Day 7 of 12
Chhokangparo to Nile (3,361m)
The trail continues to Nile (3,361m), also called Chhule, with views opening toward the peaks along the Tibetan border.
- Day 8 of 12
Day Trip to Mu Gompa (3,700m) — Second Night at Nile (3,361m)
A day trip climbs to Mu Gompa (3,700m), a working monastery founded in 1895 near the Tibetan border, with time to explore its buildings before returning to Nile for a second, acclimatizing night.
- Day 9 of 12
Nile to Chhokangparo (3,031m)
Retrace the trail back down-valley to Chhokangparo (3,031m).
- Day 10 of 12
Chhokangparo to Lokpha (2,240m)
Continue the descent to Lokpha (2,240m), the junction where the trail rejoins the main Manaslu route.
- Day 11 of 12
Lokpha to Jagat (1,340m)
The trail descends out of Tsum to Jagat (1,340m), retracing the outbound route down the gorge.
- Day 12 of 12
Jagat to Machha Khola (870m) — End of Trek
The final trekking day returns to Machha Khola (870m), where the road out to Kathmandu begins.
Walking days on the mapped route — 11 days of sourced altitudes
Numbered by walking day: walking day 1 is the first day with a mapped stage. Every altitude below is a waypoint from this route's own sources, listed at the foot of the page.
- Machha Khola 870 m
overnight
River-side lodge village on the Budi Gandaki; the road now sometimes reaches here directly, bypassing Soti Khola in some operators' itineraries.
- Jagat 1,340 m
overnight
Entry checkpoint. The resolver's nearest-to-region-centre pick for "Jagat" was a same-named, unrelated village roughly 50km away (id 295022614, wikidata-linked, ele=1300) — the exact failure mode this project's resolve-coords tooling is built to catch. The correct trailside Jagat (id 1078765998, no wikidata) sits 13.75km from Machha Khola and 14.47km from Deng, consistent with the sourced day-stage distances; the wrong candidate was rejected on that basis.
- Lokpha 2,240 m
overnight
The Tsum Valley turn-off from the main Manaslu trail. Most trekking itineraries spell this "Lokpa"; OSM's hamlet node (confirmed by a duplicate way at the same location) carries the name "Lokpha".
- Chumling 2,386 m
overnight
First Tsum Valley village after the Lokpha turn-off, at the base of a large chorten.
- Chhokangparo 3,031 m
overnight
Largest village in upper Tsum, spread across the valley floor. Repointed (Phase 5 Task 5, Ruling F) from OSM node 8378384476 — named exactly "Chhokangparo" (wikidata Q103824266) but sitting ~9.5km up-valley at the head of the Tsum valley, past Nile and Mu Gompa; Wikipedia's coordinates (28.5830°N, 85.1156°E) matched that wrong node almost exactly, which is why it was kept originally. The correct village is OSM node 3480017509, "Chhokāng" (place=village, source=GNS), at 28.498026°N, 85.066411°E — this sits correctly between Chumling (28.474°N) and Nile (28.544°N) in the valley's south-to-north ascent, the structural evidence that settles it. The altitude, 3,031m, is unchanged and still the figure five independent trekking-operator itineraries give for the lodges trekkers actually overnight in (Wikipedia's own infobox states 3,501m for the wider administrative area, not the village centre). SRTM under the new point reads ~3,214m, a ~183m gap on steep ground — an ordinary SRTM/steep-ground divergence (see the known-SRTM-outliers list in tests/elevation-profile-alignment.test.ts), not a coordinate error: the old, wrong node's terrain read 3,659m against this same 3,031m, a ~628m gap that was the actual defect.
- Nile 3,361 m
overnight
Also called Chhule; gateway to Mu Gompa, with views toward the Tibetan border peaks.
- Mu Gompa 3,700 m
day stop
Day trip from Nile and back — not slept at.
- Nile 3,361 m
overnight
Second night here — the acclimatization night, after the Mu Gompa day trip.
- Chhokangparo 3,031 m
overnight
Largest village in upper Tsum, spread across the valley floor. Repointed (Phase 5 Task 5, Ruling F) from OSM node 8378384476 — named exactly "Chhokangparo" (wikidata Q103824266) but sitting ~9.5km up-valley at the head of the Tsum valley, past Nile and Mu Gompa; Wikipedia's coordinates (28.5830°N, 85.1156°E) matched that wrong node almost exactly, which is why it was kept originally. The correct village is OSM node 3480017509, "Chhokāng" (place=village, source=GNS), at 28.498026°N, 85.066411°E — this sits correctly between Chumling (28.474°N) and Nile (28.544°N) in the valley's south-to-north ascent, the structural evidence that settles it. The altitude, 3,031m, is unchanged and still the figure five independent trekking-operator itineraries give for the lodges trekkers actually overnight in (Wikipedia's own infobox states 3,501m for the wider administrative area, not the village centre). SRTM under the new point reads ~3,214m, a ~183m gap on steep ground — an ordinary SRTM/steep-ground divergence (see the known-SRTM-outliers list in tests/elevation-profile-alignment.test.ts), not a coordinate error: the old, wrong node's terrain read 3,659m against this same 3,031m, a ~628m gap that was the actual defect.
- Lokpha 2,240 m
overnight
The Tsum Valley turn-off from the main Manaslu trail; most trekking itineraries spell this "Lokpa", but OSM's hamlet node (confirmed by a duplicate way at the same location) carries the name "Lokpha".
- Jagat 1,340 m
overnight
Entry checkpoint. The resolver's nearest-to-region-centre pick for "Jagat" was a same-named, unrelated village roughly 50km away (id 295022614, wikidata-linked, ele=1300) — the exact failure mode this project's resolve-coords tooling is built to catch. The correct trailside Jagat (id 1078765998, no wikidata) sits 13.75km from Machha Khola and 14.47km from Deng, consistent with the sourced day-stage distances; the wrong candidate was rejected on that basis.
- Machha Khola 870 m
overnight
River-side lodge village on the Budi Gandaki; the road now sometimes reaches here directly, bypassing Soti Khola in some operators' itineraries.
The remaining 1 day of this 12-day trip cover travel to and from the trailhead, and buffer time for delays en route — the specifics vary by route.
Permits
| Permit | Fee | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Tsum Valley Restricted Area Permit | USD 40 | Verified 2026-09-07 |
| Manaslu Conservation Area Permit | NPR 3,000 | Verified 2026-09-07 |
Cost breakdown
- Permits (NPR)
- NPR 3,000
- Permits (USD)
- USD 40
Permit fees above are the only figures on this page we have re-verified against the issuing authority; the route's itinerary and altitudes are built from the sources listed further down this page, not independently re-verified with one. Other trip costs — teahouse accommodation, a guide, a porter, and flights where the route requires one — vary by season, operator and party size and are not itemised here.
When to go
Month-by-month fit for Tsum Valley, based on this route's own best-months window.
- Jan avoid
- Feb shoulder
- Mar best
- Apr best
- May best
- Jun shoulder
- Jul avoid
- Aug avoid
- Sep shoulder
- Oct best
- Nov best
- Dec shoulder
Sources
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