Meet the Mountain Man behind your Bhutan adventure
Ultra-trail runner, endurance adventurer, lifelong explorer of these mountains - and the person who will plan the trip you take through them.
Jigme Tenzin
Founder & Lead Guide
- Ultra-trail runner
- Endurance adventurer
- Licensed Bhutanese operator
Experience Bhutan beyond the ordinary
Welcome to Mountain Man Adventure Bhutan - your way into this country through the eyes of someone who has spent years in its mountains, on its trails, and in the valleys and remote Himalayan communities between them.
For me the mountains are not destinations on a map. They are places I have run, climbed, camped on, struggled through, discovered, and gone back to again and again. I have covered almost every major trekking route in Bhutan, most of them solo, and at a pace that surprises people.
That has given me something no travel brochure can: first-hand knowledge of Bhutan's trails, terrain, weather, culture, and the people who live out at the far end of them. When we plan your journey, we are not reading it off a supplier's sheet. We have been there, in every season, at every pace.
The company those miles built
- 14Years guiding
- 620+Treks completed
- 3,100+Guests hosted
- 4.9/5Average rating
Routes measured in days. Run in hours.
I have explored and run almost all of Bhutan's major trekking routes, most of them solo. These are the ones people ask about.
Druk Path Trek
Paro to Thimphu over the high lakes - the route most travellers meet Bhutanese altitude on.
Trek this routeNormally5 daysMy time6 hoursSolo · 20× faster than the standard itineraryDagala Trek
The thousand-lakes plateau above Thimphu, crossed in a single push.
Trek this routeNormally7 daysMy time8 hoursSolo · 21× faster than the standard itineraryJomolhari Trek
Up the Paro Chhu to the foot of Bhutan's most sacred peak.
Trek this routeNormally7 daysMy time3½ hoursSolo · 48× faster than the standard itineraryLaya–Gasa Trek
Through the yak-herding highlands of Laya to the hot springs at Gasa.
Trek this routeNormally14 daysMy time2 daysSolo · 7× faster than the standard itinerarySnowman Trek
One of the most remote high-altitude treks on earth - most attempts don't finish it at all.
Trek this routeNormally25–30 daysMy time5 daysSolo · Unsupported · 5× faster than the standard itinerary
Paro Taktsang
The Tiger's Nest is the hardest morning of most people's trip to Bhutan. It is one of my regular morning runs - a trail I go back to because I love it, not because it is on an itinerary.
Bhutan's flag, carried a long way from home
What began on these trails has taken me to start lines and summits well beyond the kingdom - and I carry the same country's name to every one of them.
- Nepal
10:08Hours : minutesFastest Known Time, Everest Base Camp Trek
The route most trekkers give eleven to fourteen days to. I hold the FKT for it, at ten hours and eight minutes.
- Chamonix, France
1stBhutanese, everUTMB World Series Finals
The first Bhutanese runner to compete at ultra-trail running's most prestigious event.
- Chiang Mai, Thailand · December 2025
41stOf thousandsUTMB World Series Major, 100 km
One hundred kilometres against a field drawn from the whole ultra-running world.
- Bhutan, west to east
600 kmEight passesSolo bikepacking traverse
The length of the country under my own power, carrying everything, crossing eight mountain passes on the way.
- Bumthang to Thimphu
×2268 km, in a dayTour of the Dragon
Widely called the toughest one-day mountain bike race in the world. I have finished it twice.
A journey recognised by His Majesty
A blessing, and a responsibility.
One of the greatest honours of my life was receiving a Royal Audience from His Majesty the King of Bhutan, in recognition of these journeys and what they have meant for the country.
For me it is more than an achievement. It is a charge to keep carrying Bhutan's name up the trails, to keep pushing my own limits, and to keep showing people - Bhutanese and visitors alike - what is possible in these mountains.
You are not booking a standard tour
You are travelling with people who know Bhutan from the ground up - and who will build the trip around what you actually came for.
Ancient monasteries and sacred valleys
Dzongs that are still working government seats and monasteries, walked with someone who knows what happens inside them.
Cultural toursThe high Himalayas, on foot
Bhutan's classic trekking routes - Druk Path, Jomolhari, Laya Gasa, the Snowman - with acclimatization built into the schedule.
TrekkingRemote villages and mountain communities
Tshechu courtyards, homestays, and craft villages a long way from the standard western circuit.
Festival toursBhutan's famous trails, fast and light
The same passes and valleys as the treks, moved through at running pace - the way I know them best.
Trail runningA genuinely adventurous Himalayan journey
High-pass descents and singletrack on two wheels, on the roads and trails I have raced myself.
Mountain bikingBhutan on your own terms
Or none of the above - tell us the shape of the trip and we will build it around you rather than a fixed departure.
Plan my trip
- Licensed and local
- A registered Bhutanese tour operator, not a foreign reseller marking up a local partner's price.
- Guides who live here
- Every guide is born and raised in the valleys they walk you through - the stories are theirs, not a script.
- No fixed packages
- Every itinerary on this site is a starting point. We shape the pace, route, and stops around who's travelling.
- Tourism that funds the forest
- The SDF you pay isn't a markup we keep - it goes straight to the country's health, education, and conservation programs.
A kingdom that did things differently
Bhutan only opened to tourism in 1974, and has managed it deliberately ever since. Four ideas that explain why a trip here feels unlike the rest of the region.
- Gross National Happiness
- Bhutan measures national progress by wellbeing, not just GDP - a policy framework that shapes everything from land use to how many visitors the country lets in each year.
- The world's only carbon-negative country
- Over 70% forest cover, protected by the constitution, absorbs more carbon than the country emits - tourism's SDF fee directly funds keeping it that way.
- A living Buddhist culture
- Dzongs still function as both government seats and monasteries; festivals aren't staged for visitors - you're a guest at something the country already does for itself.
- High-value, low-impact tourism
- Visitor numbers are managed by design, not overcrowding by accident - so trails, temples, and towns feel like a place people live, not a tourism circuit.
Small country, outsized ideas
- 70%+Constitutionally protected forest cover
- 1Only carbon-negative country on earth
- 0Traffic lights in the entire country
- 770+Bird species recorded across the kingdom
- 100%Electricity generated from renewable hydropower
- 20+Living languages and dialects spoken across the country
- 7,570 mHeight of Gangkhar Puensum, the tallest unclimbed peak
Bhutan is not just somewhere I take you.
It is somewhere I have lived, explored, run, and fallen in love with. The best way to experience this country is not to visit it - it is to connect with its mountains, its people, its culture, and its spirit.
Jigme Tenzin
Your Journey. Our Mountains. Your Bhutan Story.