Upper Mustang Grand Traverse via Yara, Luri Gompa & Chogo La

This is the itinerary for trekkers who've read Strategy 1's own description and want to know what's on the other side of Ghar Gompa besides the standard return route. Rather than heading back toward Ghami after Lo Manthang, this itinerary continues east over Lo La and Dhi La to Dhi, then on to Yara — a genuinely remote village ringed by dramatic wind-carved cliffs, and the staging point for a dedicated excursion to Luri Gompa, one of the very few intact 14th-century cave monasteries left anywhere in the world. From Yara, the trail continues through Tangye — reached via multiple unbridged river crossings, with real Shaligram fossil-hunting along the way — and climbs to this entire trek's own highest and most remote point, Chogo La at 4,280 m, before a long, teahouse-less day to Tetang. Rather than returning to Jomsom the way Strategy 1 does, this itinerary finishes instead at Muktinath, over Gyu La Pass — one of South Asia's most sacred pilgrimage sites, holy to both Hindus and Buddhists, with its own 108 water spouts and eternal flame. Eighteen days, genuinely more demanding terrain than the standard loop, and a real answer for trekkers who've already done Upper Mustang's classic route and want the deeper version most itineraries in this document's own source set only mention in passing.