Bumthang Snow Trek: The Winter Crossing to the Golden Thumb
Destination: Bumthang Valley
Duration: 7 days / 6 nights
Difficulty: Challenging
Best season: Jan 2027 — Mar 2027
Seven days of winter trekking between Trongsa and Bumthang, on snow between the pines, with the valley's hot springs waiting at the end.
Highlights
The Pema Ling, the historic lamas' and traders' road
Snow walking under a deep canopy of pine
Trongsa Dzong above the trail on the first day
Arrival in Bumthang and the valley's hot springs
What is included
Licensed trekking guide and full winter support crew
Camping in tents with a heated mess tent, kitchen and cook
All meals on the trek and at the lodges at each end
All permits, SDF and entry fees
Winter-rated sleeping bag, mat and two pairs of trekking boots
Emergency evacuation contingency and a satellite communicator in camp
Day-by-day itinerary
Day 1 — Fly to the Golden Thumb Rather than spend two full days on the road before the walking starts, you fly from Paro to Bathpalathang, the strip above the Bumthang valley, with the flight path following the Wang Chhu all the way up. By early afternoon you are walking out into the valley at 2,600 metres, past the terraced fiel…
Day 2 — Snow trails above Bumthang A walking day in the valley above Jakar Dzong, on the Pema Ling trails that climb west from town toward the apple orchards. In January the pines hold their weight and the open sections are two feet deep, which slows everything down and makes the day feel longer than the map says. Jamba Lhakhang, th…
Day 3 — Over the Kuichar Pass The crux of the crossing. The trail climbs through forest, then out into the open above the tree line, to the Kuichar Pass at roughly 3,600 metres — the high point of the week and a long, cold, exposed kilometre. On a clear morning the view runs from Bumthang's valley floor below to the eastern pea…
Day 4 — Into the Trongsa valley Down in the Trongsa valley, which gates the only road east into Bhutan and has guarded it since the 15th century. The afternoon is Thongsa Dzong, built on a rock above the road, and the walk down through the town to the Ta Dzong — the oldest dzong in the country, built 1642, and now a museum of the…
Day 5 — Hot springs and the upper valley The Trongsa hot springs are at the confluence of two rivers, in a stand of cedar, and have been used for centuries; in the cold they are the reason to be in Bhutan at all in January. The afternoon walks upstream into the side valley above town, where the snow is deeper and the only traffic is the o…
Day 6 — Back over Kuichar A second crossing of the Kuichar Pass, walked in the opposite direction and usually faster, because the body has three days of this behind it now. The afternoon brings you back down into the Bumthang valley and into Jakar, where the last night is spent in a hotel with hot water and a bed, which is…
Day 7 — Departure from Bumthang A morning in Jakar Dzong while the valley is still quiet, then the flight from Bathpalathang to Paro to connect with your onward travel. If the weather closes in — which it can in the winter — the road back to Thimphu is eleven hours and we would plan a night in town instead.