Covid Preparedness Check: Helambu Circuit Trek Revisited

The first time I ever went into the Helambu circuit was in 1996. My brother, cousin and myself rode atop a rickety bus to Melamchi Bazaar, which was where the road ended during that time, stayed in a small lodge, and the next morning started our arduous seven-hour trek to Shermathang, part of our six days in the mountains that ended northeast of Kathmandu at Sundarijal. This was my first trek, and possibly the trigger that brought me into the tourism industry formally as an entrepreneur eventually six years later. I kept on engaging with the region, with several of my colleagues from here, and also some of the guides who led treks around Nepal. It is a region close to my heart.

That trek back then was amazing as it is now. We were novices, so it took us hours to reach anywhere, but every evening was spent with locals, chatting, drinking, and eating the most amazing local meals. I was also introduced to the amazing concept where the Buddhists in this Beyul pray to the departed souls of the goats and animals sacrificed by Hindus during the festival of Dashain. A possible first such moral balance practice between two philosophies, there is no wonder Hinduism and Buddhism are so closely interwoven in Nepal. We danced almost the whole night in Melamchighyang in front of the monastery and I cannot forget the 80-year-old grandma who kept dancing and drinking the local brew that night. This important monastery today is being rebuilt, having had serious damages during the earthquake of 2015.

This time around, three of us from the tourism industry were making our way to check on the Covid Safe Mountain Protocols and hoping to understand how to restart trekking during this pandemic, when it’s allowed again. We also wanted to check it out in monsoon, in hope that we could extend the trekking season, so were a bit cautious of roads, landslides and leeches. The rain did not bother us too much though we did end up getting a few leeches! We also were really happy to get off our months-long quarantine in the Kathmandu Valley and could not be happier to be in the mountains.

Amrit, from Himalayan Quests and Mingma, from Thamserku, and myself, were soon joined by three other colleagues from the industry – Chhewang and Galjen from Responsible Treks and Jitendra from Explore Dolpo. Together we had enough collective field experience in different parts of Nepal to draw some conclusions and work out some potential solutions.

Along the way, we did our overnights conveniently in Chipling, Kutumsang, Tharepati, Melamchighyang and Shermathang, before driving back to Kathmandu. In between, we had four to six hours of hiking every day.

The area is still stunning and retains the beautiful mix of culture and nature that is reminiscent of ancient Beyuls, probably why the word conjures images of lush valleys, gushing rivers, and a rich mix of flora and fauna where people live happily in peace. To the ones who have never heard of the word, Beyuls are valleys that dot the Himalayas known to retain the secrets to Enlightenment – a place where Tibetans brought sacred Buddhist scriptures and protected them, and kept practising, during times when Buddhism faced populist onslaughts.

As we trekked up the few north-south ridges in the Himalayas to the high point at Tharepati at 3,600 m and down the Hyolmo valley on the other side, we found the locals as usual – happy in their yet green zone, yet apprehensive of the threat COVID and the potential traveller posed – considering some of the villages have yet to have a road, forget a medical expert. And yet, the months of waiting and missing out on one of the sources of income which tourism provides was taking its toll. We realized quickly that this area needed preparing to get ready for tourism to be brought back safely, or might unsafely succumb to the onslaught that could come with tourism. With pro-action and preparedness, tourism was possible. We got to work, providing the first layer of training to locals and lodges. Back home in Kathmandu, we collected video footage from the talented videographer adventure Amrit Ale, and developed different edits from our explorative and observative journey, and helped develop material that could help provide the next few layers of training to prepare the destination.

Notable for us was the discussions we had in Melamchighyang with one of the most famous educators in Nepal, Purna Gautam, who gave up his future as an engineer to build a school in this village 35 years ago, which has become one of the most reputable village schools in Nepal today. We learnt so much from him about the local psyche, and about how to strategize the return of trekking tourism.

The Helambu region today even boasts a Climate Trek, developed post-earthquake, which uses comfort lodges in several of the villages en route, which runs on solar energy and with improved heaters, one of them in Shermathang even boasts Hemp walls. The culture and people, of course, are still the same as what I saw 24 years ago. There is organization and pro-action amongst the communities in the destination, as the destination becomes the first around Nepal working proactively around the Visit Helambu label.

Our biggest learning? Bringing tourism back here requires all stakeholders in the value chain to work together to create safe practices that protect communities and also provides the much-needed income that comes from tourism. It’s not that difficult, but very important and this involves getting everyone trained on the basics of prevention and the specifics of best practices.

Shoutout: The vehicular support we got from the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal to get to the trailhead and back from the road head, the amazing local coordination from Visit Helambu and the local lodges and communities in the Helambu region, are really noteworthy.