Hiking the Himalaya

When to hike the Himalaya

From August to October, all 9 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. Not one of them does in January and February.

Averaged across the destinations, July is the warmest month at 13 degrees in the hiking window and January the coldest at -7.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 2,792 metres at Paro Valley to 4,552 metres at Spiti Valley, with a median of 3,692 metres. Paro Valley clears the criteria in 10 months (all year except January and February), Spiti Valley in 3 months (from August to October).

They are also the longest and the shortest season among the 9 destinations.

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is snow cover for 6 of the 9 destinations and cold for 3.

In January, the quietest month, every destination is closed, 6 of them by snow cover.

Not counted here are 5 further destinations for which we publish no recommendation. They are listed below with the reason.

Conditions in August

August is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 9 degrees at Spiti Valley to 17 at Ladakh, and rain falls on 37 to 100 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 9 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.