Trip Overview
The Highest Mountain Bike race is being conducted by Makalu Adventure Nepal. It is not only the highest race but one of the most scenic race, Participants will be able to see the oldest monasteries of Tibet during their visit to Lhasa, Gyantse and Shigatse. But also one of the most scenic route as you pass by Yamdrok Tso a very beautiful lake. Tingri and Everest base camp will provide the participants a panoramic view of Mount Everest, Mt. Cho Oyu, Shishapangma all 8000 m peaks besides the view of smaller mountains on the trail. Participants will be racing in the highest plateau in the world.
The Highest; the Longest
What makes the Trans-Himalayan highway so special? Again, it's the highest road in the world, averaging an altitude of 4,500 metres above sea level as it traverses the Tibetan plateau. Secondly, the route boasts the world's longest continuous descent, which of course means that you'll face the world's longest uphill if you are heading in the opposite direction. Best of all to mountain bikers is the sense of isolation and awe-inspiring scenery. They must also face an onslaught of zigzagging mountain passes and endure a constant battle against breathlessness.
Conditions
Expect to cover 70 to 100 km per day. Be sure you have clothes for all conditions: remember that you are above the clouds and it can be very sunny and bright. It can also snow, rain, hail and become very, very cold at the drop of a hat. In fact, it's all character-building stuff and after one week you'll be more resilient to the harsh conditions.
What's the biking like?
Children carry baskets of yak dung home. The dung will be used as insulation on the walls of their house and, come winter, will be burnt as fuel. Yaks are everything out here: yak skin tents and canoes; yak milk, butter, curd and cheese; yak steak; yak wool sweaters; even yak urine as a medicinal remedy for exposed cuts.
After eight or nine days and 600 km of pedaling, you should find yourself around the town of Pelbar and the entrance to the Everest National Park. It's here that you will probably leave Highway 318 for a few days and head south to Everest Base Camp. By now you are carrying at least 50 per cent of the following ailments: knee ligament damage, saddle rash, backache, a very sore backside, cramps in your feet, a runny nose, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, headaches, nausea, dry eyes, a dusty cough, insomnia, lethargy, sunburn, frostbite, altitude sickness - not to mention any injuries you might have incurred from falling off your bike!
Fear not! For all these maladies combined cannot stop you now. Behold the Pang La, the mountain pass which rises before you! You grit your teeth, you meditate, you turn 'Eye of the Tiger' up to 10 on your Walkman; you do whatever you have to do to get into the groove, to get that Lance Armstrong vibe and hunker down for the next four or five hours to tackle this monster.
The Mount Everest
Climbing the Pang La is God's fee for allowing you to witness one of the planet's most stupefying vistas. After no less than 42 switchbacks and a rise of 900m in altitude, with your weary thighs bursting at the seams, you finally reach the cairn at the top of the pass, adorned in colorful Buddhist prayer flags. Suddenly the curtain is pulled back to reveal the row of Himalayan peaks you have been chasing. The Mount Everest!
You are now feeling physically and mentally ragged. Those last four or five hairpin bends were accomplished on willpower alone. You might well find an emotional tear freezing on your weather-beaten cheek as you finally dismount and gaze in awe at the white bowling pins before you almost close enough to touch: Makalu (8463m); Lhotse (8,516m); Jachonggangri (7985m); Cho Oyu (8,210m); Shishapangma (8012m); and the one that Tibetans have for centuries been calling Chomolungma ("Mother Goddess of the World"), at 8850 meters above sea level - Mount Everest.
Book with confidence
Over 1,258 bikers from 61 different countries have organized Lhasa to Kathmandu bike tour with us since 1998. Success rate is above 96%.
