Introduction and location

Golog Mountains is part of Bayan Har Mountain Range which is mainly located in Qinghai Province of China. Golog Mountains are located by the border of Sichuan Province and Qinghai Province and can be accessed from both sides. The Golog Mountains are famous for its rocky faces and steep walls rather ther snow or alipine climb. The central part of Golod Mountains is called Nyenpo Yurtse, which is becoming a famous tourist place due to its unique landscape.

Nyenpo Yurtse (Nianbao Yuze) is located in the town of Suohuma, Jiuzhi County, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The main peak is 5369 meters above sea level. Nyenpo Yurtse borders Aba County of Sichuan Province. It is a prominent cluster of mountains in the junction of Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces. There is cultural and religious significance of this mountain that related to the historical King Gesar in the epic of Tibetan heroes. This place is featured with steep rocky mountains, lakes and nomads roaming grasslands.

Nyenpo Yurtse Mountain massif is 40 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide. It consists of many peaks above 4000 meters in altitude, and the main peak is 5369 meters, which has the name of Nyenpo Yurtse. On the mountain, there are over 300 lakes formed by melting snow and ice.

Exact location of these mountains are in the territory of Sohu Rima Township, Jiuzhi County, Guolog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

How to get there

Nyenpo Yurtse was open for some years for tourists and then closed in 2019 due to enviroment reasons. It can still be accessed by foot from south, east and west sides.

To go to Nyenpo Yurtse one can either start from Chengdu of Sichuan or from Xining of Qinghai, both ways will take you around 1.5 days’ drive to get you to the nearest town at Jiuzhi County. From Jiuzhi another 1 hour’s ride to its north entrance (now closed), or 0.5h drive to its east entrance. Note before the places was closed there is only one official entrance that the road can take you to the lakes, its south, west and east entrance manily refer to the valleys and trails where can lead you deeper into the mountain by foot.

The following is a 7-day Mt. Nyenpo Yurtse summit trip plan used by former climbers:

D1: Chengdu drive to Aba County (3290M)
Depart in the morning, pass the Duwen Expressway, pass through Lixian County, en route lunch, cross the Sheshan Tunnel, pass the Longriba Grassland, and arrive in Aba County for accommodation in the afternoon. The drive takes about 9 hours.
D2: Aba County — Jiuzhi, Qinghai — Nyenpo Yurtse (north entrance) — BC (4050M)
Departure after breakfast, 2 hours drive to Nianbao Yuze Scenic Area. Along the shores of Shunxian Lake and Demon Lake, the summer flowers all the way, 5 hours walking to the base camp.
D3: BC (4050M)
Acclimating
D4: BC — C1 (4050M-4800M)
From BC, the journey takes about 7 hours walking. Stay at camp C1.
D5: C1 — Summit — BC (4800M-5369M)
Starting at C1, summit at no late than 1pm. After the summit, returned to camp C1 to rest and then descended to BC.
D6: BC — Scenic Gate — Aba County
After breakfast, leave camp. Walk back to trail head and drive to Aba City.
D7: Aba County-Chengdu
another 9-hour drive back to Chengdu.

Climbing Season

Nyenpo Yurtse has unpredictable weather. During July and August, the average temperature is 10 ° C. Summer season temperature can reach up to 27 ° C by the towns around Nyenpo Yurtse. The temperature difference between day and night is large. Annual average precipitation is 764.4 mm.

Mountains and Peaks

There are over 30 peaks that are over 5000 meters in Nyenpo Yurtse. Base of the mountains here are at around or over 4000 meters, the walls are between 400 meters to 600 meters high.
Mt. Nyenpo Yurtse is 5369 meters.
Mt. Tsuyu Mutso is 5141 meters. It is the highest mountain in Aba County of Sichuan.
Kebi Zalong is 5119 meters. This mountain is also called Banza.
Nila Gonke is 5036 meters.
Jiho Chalan is 4620 meters.
Layom is 4950 meters. It is located in the south part of Nyenpo Yurtse. 4950 meters is an estimated altitude, it could be higher.

Climbing History

Mountains of Nyenpo Yurtse have seen climbing trips since 20 years ago. The main peak, Mt. Nyenpo Yurtse was summited multiple times by different Chinese teams. The other climbs are rock climbing instead of alpine.

The stopover place to get to Nyenpo Yurtse is Aba and Jiuzhi.