This paper aims to show, with evidence from the Salme slope, that there is no direct relationship between human pressure, monsoon rains, and erosion in the Middle Mountains of Central Nepal. It emphasizes the importance of methodology in such a study. The author spent an entire year studying the Salme slope from different perspectives. Observations on selected climatic parameters and vegetation have been recorded regularly for five years. The climatological study indicates that rainfall is very heavy (4,000 mm/yr) but not very erosive; the cultivated area receives significant amounts of insolation even during the summer monsoon. These factors lead to abundant growth of vegetation under forest and on terraced fields during the monsoon season. Maintenance of the cultivated area contributes to slope stability. Development of gullies (pahiro) is the only significant process of erosion and this appears to be a result of natural rather than anthropogenic forces. Negative effects of rain and human pressure on the soil resource are infrequent, localized, and of limited scope. Thus, these impacts should be seen as stabilizing elements in a naturally fragile environment, rather than destabilizing agents in a mountain area that some have described as severely degraded as a result of human abuse.