Eastern Nepal, rivers & remote routes
Sunita Rai
River guide and trek leader, and the only person we would send to Pangpema with eight strangers.
- Based in
- Dhankuta, Koshi
- Years guiding
- 12
- Certification
- NMA trekking guide · Swiftwater rescue technician · Raft guide, Grade V
- Languages
- Nepali, Bantawa, English
Sunita came to guiding through rivers — she was running the Sun Koshi commercially at twenty-four, and holds a swiftwater rescue certification that most Nepali raft guides do not bother with.
The eastern trekking work grew out of that. Kanchenjunga North is a twenty-day commitment through country with almost no infrastructure, and she plans it like a river trip: contingency days, redundant supplies, and a hard rule about turning around.
She runs the pre-season safety refresher that every Aroha river crew completes, and has an unnervingly good memory for where the eddies are.
On a river you cannot argue with the water. On a mountain people think they can. They are wrong in the same way.
Sunita Rai
- 31Sun Koshi descents
- 9Kanchenjunga expeditions led
- 3Rescue certifications current
Guide profiles are fictional. The photographs beside them show the terrain each guide works in — they do not depict the people described.
3 journeys
Trips Sunita leads.
Book any of these and this is who meets you at the airport.
Kanchenjunga North Base Camp
20 days · Max 8 travellers · Apr–May · Oct–Nov
The long walk to Pangpema, beneath the third-highest mountain on earth, through a corner of Nepal most trekkers never reach.
Sun Koshi river expedition
9 days · Max 12 travellers · Oct–Nov · Apr–May
270 river kilometres over eight days, from the middle hills to the Terai plains, camping on white sand with no road within reach.
Mera Peak high-altitude climb
19 days · Max 8 travellers · Apr–May · Oct–Nov
Nepal's highest trekking peak, approached through the empty Hinku valley, with five eight-thousanders visible from the summit.
The rest of the team
Other guides.
Private departures
Travel with Sunita.
Name a guide when you enquire about a private trip and we will build the dates around their calendar wherever we can.