Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Trip highlights

• Standing in the Sanctuary

  4,130 metres in a glacial basin with mountain on almost every bearing — Annapurna I at 8,091 m at the head, Annapurna South and Hiunchuli on one side, Machhapuchhre on the other. There is no other viewpoint in Nepal that surrounds you like this one.

• Dawn on Poon Hill

  3,210 metres, reached in the dark from Ghorepani, for Dhaulagiri at 8,167 m to the west and the Annapurnas to the east from the same spot. The direct route into the Sanctuary skips it, which is two days saved and the best wide view on the trek lost.

• Gurung villages and rhododendron forest

  Ghandruk and Chhomrong are working hill villages of slate roofs and stone terraces, not trailhead settlements. Above them the forest flowers red through late March and April, which is the fortnight photographers plan the whole trip around.

• Machhapuchhre, which nobody has climbed

  6,993 metres, sacred to the Gurung, closed to climbing since 1957 and unsummited. You walk directly beneath it for two days and camp at its base camp at 3,700 m.

• The hot springs at Jhinu Danda

  Stone pools beside the Modi Khola, twenty minutes below the village, on the second-to-last walking day. After eight days of stone staircases this is not a novelty.

At a glance

• The Sanctuary, 4,130 mA glacial amphitheatre ringed by Annapurna I, Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre.
• 14 days, Kathmandu to KathmanduTen on the trail, by way of Ghorepani and Poon Hill.
• Stairs, not altitude1,400 m lower than Everest Base Camp, and harder on the legs.
• Annapurna, NepalPokhara, Ghorepani, Chhomrong, Machhapuchhre Base Camp.
• Teahouse lodges throughoutDormitory beds at the top two lodges in peak season — see Good to know.
• No Lukla flight to missA road start from Pokhara, which is the other reason people choose this over Everest.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrive Kathmandu, 1,300 m

   Met at the airport and driven to the hotel. Kit check with the guide in the afternoon — on this trek the thing worth checking is your boots, because you are about to descend several thousand stone steps in them and blisters start on the way down, not the way up.

2. 2Day 2Kathmandu to Pokhara, 850 m

   Twenty-five minutes by air with the Annapurnas along the right-hand side the whole way, or six to seven hours by road through the hills. Pokhara sits on Phewa Lake with Machhapuchhre standing over it, and the afternoon is free — it is the last hot shower and the last flat ground for ten days.

3. 3Day 3Drive to Nayapul and trek to Tikhedhunga, 1,540 m

   An hour and a half by road to the trailhead, then four hours up the Bhurungdi Khola through rice terraces and subtropical farmland. Warm, green, and nothing like the mountains you came for — which is the point of this trek, that it starts in country where people live and work.

4. 4Day 4Tikhedhunga to Ghorepani, 2,870 m

   The hardest day on the way in, and the one nobody warns you about: roughly 3,300 stone steps up to Ulleri before the trail relents into rhododendron forest. Six to seven hours. In late March and April this is the fortnight the forest is red.

5. 5Day 5Poon Hill, 3,210 m, at dawn — then to Tadapani, 2,630 m

   Up at half past four for a headtorch climb of about an hour to Poon Hill for sunrise: Dhaulagiri at 8,167 m to the west, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli and Machhapuchhre to the east, all from one small summit. Back for breakfast, then five hours contouring through forest to Tadapani.

6. 6Day 6Tadapani to Chhomrong, 2,170 m

   Five to six hours down through forest to Kimrong Khola and back up the other side, which is the pattern of this trek in miniature. Chhomrong is the largest Gurung village on the route, terraced down a hillside, with Annapurna South filling the view from the top of it and the last bakery on the trail.

7. 7Day 7Chhomrong to Dovan, 2,600 m

   The valley narrows and the character changes. Down several hundred steps to the Chhomrong Khola, up the far side, and then the trail commits to the Modi Khola gorge — bamboo, then rhododendron, then the walls closing in. Five to six hours, with waterfalls and very little sky.

8. 8Day 8Dovan to Machhapuchhre Base Camp, 3,700 m

   Five hours climbing the corridor past Hinku Cave and Deurali, where the tree line ends and the gorge opens into the Sanctuary gate. This is the section that closes after heavy snow — see Good to know. Machhapuchhre Base Camp sits directly under the fishtail, and the afternoon is spent moving slowly and drinking.

9. 9Day 9Machhapuchhre to Annapurna Base Camp, 4,130 m, and sunset

   A short day on purpose: two hours and 430 metres up into the Sanctuary itself, arriving before lunch so you have the whole afternoon at altitude rather than a dash. Annapurna I stands 4,000 metres above you at the head of the basin. The sunset lights Annapurna South first and the summit of Annapurna I last, and the temperature drops the moment the light goes.

10. 10Day 10Sunrise at base camp, then down to Bamboo, 2,310 m

    Out of the lodge in the dark for the reverse of last night — first light on Annapurna I, the basin still in shadow. Then breakfast and a long descent, six to seven hours, losing 1,800 metres back down the gorge. Knees, rather than lungs, are the limiting factor from here on.

11. 11Day 11Bamboo to Jhinu Danda, 1,780 m, and the hot springs

    Five hours back through Chhomrong and down to Jhinu, then twenty minutes further down to the stone pools beside the Modi Khola. The springs are the reason this village is on the itinerary and the reason nobody minds the climb back up to the lodge afterwards.

12. 12Day 12Jhinu Danda to Pokhara

    Two to three hours down to the road at Siwai or Nayapul, then an hour and a half by jeep to Pokhara. A hotel, a shower, laundry, and an evening by the lake that traditionally runs late.

13. 13Day 13Pokhara to Kathmandu

    Fly or drive back, with the afternoon free. Dinner with the crew, which is when the guides tell you what they actually thought of the group.

14. 14Day 14Depart Kathmandu

    Transfer to the airport for your onward flight. With a spare day, Bhaktapur is forty minutes away and is the best-preserved of the three Kathmandu valley durbar squares.

Good to know

It is stairs, and that is the whole difficulty

Everyone arrives having read that Annapurna Base Camp is the easy one because it only reaches 4,130 metres. The altitude is easier. The walking is not. This trail is stone staircases built for porters, and you go up and down them for eight days — the climb to Ulleri alone is somewhere around 3,300 steps, and the descent from the Sanctuary loses 1,800 metres in a day.

If you train for one thing, train on stairs, downhill included. The people who struggle here are almost never short of cardiovascular fitness; they have quadriceps and knees that have never done four hours of descent in a row. Trekking poles are not optional on this trek and we will keep saying so.

Avalanche, and the one thing we will cancel for

The corridor between Hinku Cave and Deurali on day eight runs under steep slopes, and it has a real avalanche history — people have been killed in it, including in the 2014 storm. After heavy snow the route into the Sanctuary closes, and when it is open after fresh snow it is crossed early in the morning and quickly.

We take the guide's decision on this without argument and so should you. If the Sanctuary is shut we walk the Ghorepani and Ghandruk circuit instead, which is a good trek in its own right, and nobody is charged for the difference. What we will not do is put a group into that corridor on a bad day because the itinerary says day eight.

The top two lodges, and what a bed means there

Machhapuchhre Base Camp and Annapurna Base Camp have a handful of lodges between them and no alternative for hours in either direction. In October and April they fill, and a bed can mean a dormitory bunk in a room of eight rather than a twin. That is the arrangement at the top of this trek for everyone, at every price, and an operator promising you a private room at 4,130 metres in peak season is promising something they cannot control.

Everywhere lower down is twin share. Bring a sleeping bag rated to about minus ten: the lodges have no heating in the rooms and the Sanctuary is cold as soon as the sun leaves it, which happens early because of the walls.

Altitude — lower, but not nothing

4,130 metres is high enough to feel and high enough to matter. The profile is gentler than Everest Base Camp but the last two days gain height quickly, which is why day nine is deliberately short. Headache and broken sleep at the Sanctuary are common. Vomiting that will not stop, confusion, a headache that does not lift, or any loss of coordination mean going down, at once. The descent is fast from here, which is one of the genuine safety advantages of this trek.

Leeches, if you come in the wet

Between June and mid-September the lower forest has leeches, in numbers. They are harmless and deeply unpleasant. We do not run this trek in the monsoon, and if you are being sold it then, that is why the price is low.

Water, and what to spend

Buy boiled water from the lodges or treat your own — bottled water is banned in much of the conservation area and rightly so. Budget roughly US$ 10 to 20 a day for drinks, charging, wifi and hot showers, all of which cost more the higher you go. Carry rupees in cash; Chhomrong is the last place with any kind of reliable machine and nothing above it takes a card.

Permits

The Annapurna Conservation Area Project permit and the trekkers' registration card, both included and both arranged by us in Kathmandu or Pokhara before you start.

Questions about this trip

You might also consider

• Island Peak with Everest Base CampThe Everest Base Camp trail and a 6,189 m summit in one trip — ropes, crampons, a skills day at Chhukung and full climbing support.From US$ 2,050
• Manaslu TrekAround the eighth-highest mountain on earth — the Budhi Gandaki gorge, Tibetan villages, the Larkya La at 5,106 m and a fraction of the crowds.From US$ 2,300
• Everest Base Camp TrekThe world's most famous trail — Namche, Tengboche and Kala Patthar's Everest panorama, walked at a pace that gets people there.From US$ 1,850