Bhandar: The First Night on the Jiri Route to Everest Base Camp

The first night of the walking on our Jiri to Everest Base Camp trek is easy to overlook. Day 1 is a long drive from Kathmandu, and by the time you reach Jiri you are tired and looking at a map that is mostly about the mountains in the distance. But Bhandar, the village where you sleep after your first day on foot, is where the trail begins to feel like a journey rather than a transfer. It deserves a proper page.

Where is Bhandar, and which Bhandar do you mean?

Bhandar lies on the old route between Jiri and Lukla, a day's walk beyond Jiri and a day before Junbesi. The name is not unique. Wikipedia lists a former village development committee called Bamti Bhandar, in Ramechhap District, with a population of 2,895 at the 1991 census, and gives its coordinates as about 27.57 degrees north, 86.36 degrees east. OpenStreetMap places a hamlet called Bhandar at about 27.57 north, 86.34 east, and another called Tallo Bhandar, which means Lower Bhandar, close by. The Wikipedia point and the OpenStreetMap point are about two kilometres apart, so they are neighbours, not the same place.

Here is what I can and cannot tell you. Jiri is in Dolakha District, where it is the seat of Jiri Municipality. Sete, a stop beyond Bhandar on the way to Junbesi, is in Likhu Pike Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu District, according to OpenStreetMap. Somewhere on the walk between them you cross a district line. I have not found a published source that says which side of it the part of Bhandar where we sleep falls on, so I am not going to guess. If you see Bhandar and Bamti Bhandar on two different maps, that is the reason.

Our itinerary also gives the village a second name, Chyangma. I have not found a second source for that, so treat it as a local name that you may hear from your guide.

How high is Bhandar?

Our itinerary gives Bhandar as 2,040 metres (6,693 feet), and that is the figure we use with guests. As with most villages on this route, published figures are not identical, so here is what I could check. A 30-metre terrain model, SRTM data read through OpenTopoData, gives about 2,080 metres at Tallo Bhandar and about 2,240 metres at the point OpenStreetMap marks as Bhandar. The village is spread down a slope, so it does not have one height. Our figure sits inside that range, which is why I am comfortable with it.

Two other figures from the same walk, for the sake of checking. We give Jiri as 1,905 metres, while the climate table on Wikipedia's Jiri page gives 1,877 metres. And we give the Deurali pass above Bhandar as 2,705 metres, where the terrain model gives about 2,716 metres at a hamlet called Deurali on the ridge. Nothing here is out by more than a few dozen metres, and for walking purposes that is close enough.

Why do we sleep in Bhandar on day 2?

On our 18-day Jiri to Everest Base Camp itinerary, day 1 is the drive from Kathmandu to Jiri, 211 kilometres and 9 to 10 hours by our own listing. Day 2 is Jiri to Bhandar, 13.4 kilometres and 6 to 7 hours. Day 3 is Bhandar to Junbesi over Lamjura La.

The reason for stopping here is the shape of the day. From Jiri you climb to the Deurali pass, a gain of about 800 metres, and then drop steeply down the other side to Bhandar. You finish at 2,040 metres, which by our figures is only about 135 metres above where you started the morning in Jiri. So you do a lot of work, but you sleep barely higher than the night before. That is good for a first day on foot, because the body gets its introduction to hills without being asked to adjust to altitude. Tomorrow is harder, and you want to be rested for it.

What is the walk in from Jiri like?

You leave Jiri north through the edge of town and start climbing almost immediately, through terraced fields and then forest. Our itinerary describes oak, rhododendron and pine, and in spring the rhododendrons are in bloom. The climb is steady and sustained, not technical, and it is the kind of honest hill walking that warms your legs. At the top is the Deurali pass, and then the descent into Bhandar is steep. Poles and a slow pace help your knees more than anything else.

This is the same ridge-and-valley pattern you will meet for the next several days. The trail runs across the grain of the country, so you climb a pass, drop into a valley, and climb again. Our longer guide to the Jiri route walks through the whole of it, and our Jiri versus Lukla comparison shows what you gain and lose by starting here.

What is Bhandar like to sleep in?

It is a farming village, not a trekking town. Our itinerary describes it on a broad shelf of terraced land with views across the valley, with mani walls lining the trail as you arrive, prayer wheels beside the stone houses and a gompa on a rise above the settlement. You can read about what those things mean in our guide to prayer flags, mani walls and gompas.

The teahouse is simple. Rooms are small and wooden with a bed, the toilet is a squat toilet out the back, and you eat in a shared dining room. Meals are cooked fresh from whatever the kitchen has that day, so what you eat is what the family eats. Our guide to what teahouses are really like sets expectations honestly. You will often be the only trekking group in the village, or one of very few, and that is part of the charm of this route.

Who lives in Bhandar?

Our published guide to the Jiri route describes the villages between Jiri and Lukla as Rai and Sherpa settlements, and our itinerary describes Bhandar as a Sherpa settlement, one of the southernmost in the Solu-Khumbu region. I do not have a census breakdown for the village itself, so I will leave it at that. If you want to understand who the Sherpa people are beyond the mountaineering stereotype, start with our article on the Sherpa people.

What comes after Bhandar?

Day 3 is the first real test. Our itinerary has you climb from Bhandar to Lamjura La, 3,530 metres, which is a gain of more than 1,400 metres over the day through cloud forest, and then descend into the valley of Junbesi, where we sleep at 2,700 metres. It is six to seven hours of walking. Start early, drink water steadily, and let your guide set the pace. Our guide to safe drinking water on treks explains how we handle it.

When should you walk through Bhandar?

The route works in the same two seasons as the rest of the Everest region, March to May and October to November. Spring brings the rhododendron bloom through the forest above Jiri. Autumn brings clearer skies for the mountain views you are working toward. The summer monsoon makes these hills wet and slippery, and I will talk you out of it. Our month-by-month guide goes deeper.

What permits does the Jiri route need?

The Jiri approach passes through the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, which our trek page lists for the Jiri to Bhandar section. Once you reach the Khumbu you also need the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit, NPR 3,000 for foreigners, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee, NPR 3,000, and we buy a TIMS card for every group. We arrange all of these in Kathmandu and include them in your trek price, so you do not have to queue for any of it. The full list is on our Jiri to Everest Base Camp Trek page, and our permits guide covers the rest.

The short version

Bhandar is a small Sherpa and Rai farming village on the first walking day of the Jiri route, at about 2,040 metres by our figures and spread over a slope that terrain data puts anywhere between about 2,080 and 2,240 metres. You climb about 800 metres to the Deurali pass, drop steeply down, and sleep barely higher than you started. It is a gentle introduction to the hills, with Lamjura La waiting the next morning. If you want to talk it through, message me on WhatsApp on +977 9810351300.

Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586.