The brief
The Forbidden Kingdom
The dates, the cover, the paperwork and the questions riders actually ask — the part of the trip that is not the riding.
Departures
- 2026 · October–Decemberopen
- 2027 · March–Mayopen
- 2027 · October–Decemberopen
Bike & setup
Enduro bike · reinforced tubeless tyres · dropper post essential · 180–200 mm rotors
Before you reserve
The detail a high-altitude expedition deserves — answered here, and talked through with you personally before your place is confirmed.
+ Safety, acclimatisation & evacuation
Every departure is led by experienced local guides who know this ground. Safety is more than equipment. It is close coordination with the villages, lodges and families along the route, and a local network that gets word and help moving fast. The pace is set by the slowest rider. Altitude is taken step by step. Where a tour climbs on the bike, there are nights at altitude before the high passes. Where a helicopter lifts riders high, they stay up only a short time and ride straight down. The rule on the mountain is simple: if symptoms do not ease, we go down. If a rider has to leave the mountain, the team arranges the rescue, and the rider's insurance pays for it.
+ Fitness & experience
These are graded rides at real altitude, with long days in the saddle and sustained descents. We talk through your riding history honestly before a place is confirmed. Be honest with us about how you ride; it helps us match you to the right trip.
+ Bikes, kit & support
Bring your own bike, or hire one from us. Hire is priced by the type of bike: a hardtail at $20–30 a day, a full-suspension trail or enduro bike at $50–80. An e-bike, at $100–150 a day, is by request: we arrange the logistics, charging and support included, where the route allows. We recommend the right type for each tour and for what you like to ride. If you fly your own, check your airline's rules for a bike box and declare the bike at customs in Kathmandu. Your bag, up to 15 kg, travels by vehicle, porter or mule while you ride. Spares and tools ride with the guides, and the kit list comes once your dates are set.
+ Rooms, food & water
In Kathmandu and Pokhara you stay in comfortable city hotels; on the route, in family-run lodges — simple, warm, shared washrooms at altitude — with breakfast, lunch and dinner included, and a serviced camp on the nights a tour sleeps beyond the lodges. Tell us about any diet when you reserve; dal bhat, noodles, eggs and fresh bread are on every menu. Bring a bottle and a filter or tablets — your guide shows you where to refill.
+ A day on the trail
Breakfast early, on the bike by eight, lunch in a village or on the trail, and at the lodge by mid-afternoon on most days — the light and the weather are kindest before noon. The vehicle or the mules carry the bags; your guide sets the pace to the slowest rider and briefs the next day over dinner. If you need a rest, you ride in the vehicle where there is a road, or walk with one of the team where there is not.
+ Insurance
Insurance is a condition of riding: it must cover mountain biking at the altitudes on your route, helicopter evacuation and rescue, medical treatment, and trip cancellation and delay. We check every certificate before departure.
+ Fees, deposit & cancellation
A 30 per cent deposit holds your place, and the balance is due two months before departure, by bank transfer — no card is entered here, and nothing is charged through this site. What happens if you have to cancel is set out in full in our booking terms. Read the booking terms →
+ Visas & permits
We guide you through Nepal entry and arrange every permit your route needs — park or conservation-area entry for the ground it crosses, any local permit the valley adds, and a restricted-area permit wherever the route enters a restricted area. They are carried by your guide, not by you.
How we grade
One scale for every tour and ride, set by the hardest riding and the altitude together. If you are unsure where you sit, tell us what you ride at home; a guide will say plainly whether a trip suits you.
Intermediate
Red trails in the UK and Europe, blue to black in North America
Three to five hours a day, with most climbs shuttled
You ride red trails with confidence and can do it again the next day.
You have not yet ridden off-road for several days in a row.
Advanced
Red to black trails in the UK and Europe, black in North America
Four to seven hours a day, descents of a thousand metres or more, and some carrying
You ride black trails cleanly, are comfortable on loose rock and steep switchbacks, and can push or carry a bike for an hour at altitude.
Steep, exposed or loose ground still makes you walk.
Expert
Black and double-black in North America; the hardest natural trails in the Alps
Six to nine hours a day, remote, with long hike-a-bike over 5,000-metre passes
You have done multi-day trips in the mountains, ride technical descents tired and cold, and have been above 4,500 metres before.
This would be your first trip at altitude.
Where a day is graded, it carries three scores, each out of five.
- Technical
- How hard the trail is to ride — rock, steps, exposure and loose ground.
- Flow
- How much of the day runs as rideable descent with rhythm.
- Physical
- How hard the day is on the body — distance, climbing, altitude and carrying.
When to ride
Over a decade of reading these weather windows applies here with an extra margin: Upper Mustang sits beyond the main Himalayan crest, in the driest country the range makes, and it wears a season differently to the valleys south of it. We watch that window as closely here as anywhere we ride, and what follows is the honest account of each.
Recommended
Spring
Mar · Apr · May
March to May is one of the two recommended windows, alongside autumn — the season most riders choose to cross the 4,210-metre Pa Pass and ride into Lo Manthang.
Rideable
Monsoon and late monsoon
Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Upper Mustang lies beyond the main Himalayan crest, in the deepest of the range's rain shadows — the ground stays high desert, rocky and dry, while the monsoon works on the country to the south. It is the quietest window on this route, and the trade is the same one that holds everywhere we ride through it: an odd delay on the road in, and a readiness to adapt. Lodges through Mustang are family-run and thin out with the season, and our trips are prepared for that.
Recommended
Autumn
Oct · Nov · Dec
October to December is the other recommended window, on the same far side of the monsoon as spring — and the season we watch most closely as the weather here, like everywhere we work, grows less predictable than it once was.
Rideable
Winter
Jan · Feb
January and February bring the high desert's own quiet — a plateau that empties out below a 4,210-metre pass, colder again for the altitude, with family-run lodges thinning further along the route. The same readiness applies here as through the monsoon: our trips run on the window that is actually open, not the one the calendar names.
Rider questions
? Why is it called the Forbidden Kingdom?
Upper Mustang was an autonomous Tibetan kingdom closed to foreigners until 1992, and it still sits behind a restricted-area permit priced to keep numbers small. The permit is arranged as part of the expedition — the paperwork is ours, the riding is yours.
? Do I need a permit to mountain bike in Upper Mustang?
Yes. Everything north of Kagbeni is the Upper Mustang Restricted Area, and every rider needs a special restricted-area permit alongside the standard entry paperwork. We arrange all of it as part of the expedition — you never queue at a counter.
? How hard is the riding?
Graded advanced. The trip ramps deliberately — the first week rides trails graded three and four of five, and the core days around Dhakmar, the lost valleys and Pa Pass are the five-of-five days, including a sustained hike-a-bike to 4,210 metres.
? What kind of riding is it?
Shuttle-assisted enduro and all-mountain. A support vehicle takes the sting out of the big climbs where a road exists; the descents — canyon switchbacks, ridgeline singletrack, centuries-old caravan trails — are why you came.
? What bike should I bring?
An enduro bike with reinforced tubeless tyres, a dropper post and 180–200 mm rotors. The terrain is rocky, dry and fast; setup details are confirmed when you reserve.
? Where do we sleep?
Comfortable hotels in the cities, family-run lodges through Mustang, two nights in the walled city of Lo Manthang, and one night of serviced camping beside Sekung Lake under an unlit sky.
Reserve a place.
The per-rider price falls as the group grows. Everything listed below is included; the figure is confirmed in writing when you reserve, and nothing is charged through this site.
Group sizePer rider
Included
- Airport transfers in Kathmandu
- The Kathmandu–Pokhara flights, out and back, for riders and crew
- A support jeep and the shuttles through Mustang
- Seven hotel nights in Kathmandu and Pokhara
- Nine nights on the route, in lodges and one serviced lake camp, with all meals
- The meals the itinerary lists in Kathmandu and Pokhara, with a welcome dinner
- Experienced local guides, with the crew's pay and insurance
- Your bag, up to 15 kg, carried by the vehicle and the mules
- A group medical kit carried by the guides
- The Annapurna Conservation Area and Upper Mustang restricted-area permits
- All local and government taxes
Not included
- International flights to and from Kathmandu
- Nepal visa fees, $30–125 depending on the length of stay
- Travel and medical insurance, which is required, with helicopter evacuation cover to the route's altitude
- Meals in Kathmandu and Pokhara other than those the itinerary lists
- Bike hire, from $20 to $150 a day by type of bike — or bring your own
- Personal spending, such as laundry, phone calls, drinks and souvenirs
- Tips for the crew, which are customary but voluntary
- Extra costs from weather delays or other events outside our control