Manaslu Trek

Trip highlights

• The Larkya La at 5,106 m

  A long cold crossing from Dharmasala, eight to ten hours, and then the descent — off the pass with Himlung, Cheo and Kang Guru around you and the whole Annapurna range opening up in front. It is the best single day's walking on the trek and arguably in Nepal.

• The Budhi Gandaki gorge

  Four days climbing a genuine gorge with the trail blasted into the rock wall and suspension bridges strung across it, from rice terraces at 700 metres up into pine forest. Nothing on the Annapurna or Everest trails is built like this.

• Crossing into Tibetan Nepal on foot

  Somewhere above Namrung the houses change from timber to flat-roofed stone, the writing changes script, and the religion changes. You walk from Hindu foothill Nepal into a Tibetan Buddhist valley over about two days, which is a thing you can feel happening.

• Samagaon, under Manaslu's north face

  3,530 metres, a working village of stone and barley with Birendra Lake and Pungyen Gompa above it and 8,163 metres of mountain behind. The acclimatisation day here is spent walking up to one or the other, and it is the day most people remember the village rather than the peaks.

• Quiet, and legally protected as such

  The restricted-area rules — two trekkers minimum, licensed guide, agency permit — are the reason this trail has a fraction of the Annapurna Circuit's traffic. It is the rare case where paperwork is the thing preserving the experience.

At a glance

• Larkya La, 5,106 mCrossed in one eight-to-ten hour day, with the Annapurnas on the far side.
• 16 days, Kathmandu to KathmanduThirteen on the trail, with an acclimatisation day at Samagaon.
• Restricted area — two trekkers minimumA licensed guide and an agency permit are required by law, not by us.
• A fraction of the Annapurna trafficThe permit rules are why, and they are the reason it has stayed this way.
• Gorkha, NepalMachha Khola, Jagat, Namrung, Samagaon, Samdo and Bimtang.
• Teahouse lodges throughoutSimpler than Annapurna's, and a stone shelter the night before the pass.

Day by day

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

   Met at the airport and driven to the hotel. Permits for a restricted area are applied for in person with your passport and photographs, so this day exists partly for paperwork. Kit check with the guide in the afternoon.

2. 2Day 2Kathmandu to Soti Khola, 700 m

   Seven to eight hours by road west and then north into Gorkha — tarmac as far as Arughat and rough track after it. It is a long day in a vehicle and the last one for two weeks. The gorge starts at the far end of it.

3. 3Day 3Soti Khola to Machha Khola, 930 m

   Six hours, and the walk begins the way the trek means to go on: in and out of the Budhi Gandaki gorge on a trail cut into the rock, through rice terraces, bamboo and waterfalls, crossing the river on suspension bridges. Subtropical and warm.

4. 4Day 4Machha Khola to Jagat, 1,410 m

   Seven hours up the gorge past the hot springs at Tatopani and the police checkpost at Jagat, where the restricted-area permits are checked for the first time. The valley narrows all day and the forest changes from bamboo to pine.

5. 5Day 5Jagat to Deng, 1,800 m

   Six to seven hours. The gorge deepens and the trail climbs higher above the river, with several long suspension bridges. Deng is the first village that feels like the mountains rather than the foothills, and the first mani walls appear on the way into it.

6. 6Day 6Deng to Namrung, 2,660 m

   Six to seven hours and the day the country changes. Past Bihi Phedi and Ghap, through pine and rhododendron, and into Namrung, where the houses are flat-roofed stone and the writing on the chortens is Tibetan. Ganesh Himal and Himal Chuli come into view.

7. 7Day 7Namrung to Samagaon, 3,530 m

   Six hours through Lho and Shyala, both Tibetan villages with gompas worth stopping at, and the first full sight of Manaslu's north face — 8,163 metres, straight ahead, for most of the afternoon. Samagaon is the largest village on the route and the best.

8. 8Day 8Samagaon — acclimatisation

   A day here is not optional at 3,530 metres with a 5,106 metre pass four days out. Two good walks to choose from: up to Birendra Lake and on towards Manaslu Base Camp at about 4,400 metres, or up to Pungyen Gompa on the shoulder opposite. Either climbs several hundred metres and comes back down to sleep.

9. 9Day 9Samagaon to Samdo, 3,875 m

   A short three to four hours up the valley, past the turning for the Tibetan border trade route, to the last permanent village on the trek. Samdo is a Tibetan settlement of about forty houses and the afternoon is free to walk up the ridge behind it, which is the best acclimatisation available.

10. 10Day 10Samdo to Dharmasala, 4,460 m

    Three hours only, and deliberately so. Dharmasala — Larkya Phedi — is a stone shelter rather than a village, cold, basic and often full. Arriving early means resting before the longest day of the trek and eating at a sensible hour. Sleep in everything you have.

11. 11Day 11Larkya La, 5,106 m, and down to Bimtang, 3,720 m

    The big day: eight to ten hours, away by four in the morning. A long steady climb on moraine in the dark and cold to the prayer flags at the top, with Himlung, Cheo and Kang Guru around you. Then the descent, which is the part nobody expects — steep and loose at first, then a long walk down a glacial valley with the Annapurnas filling the horizon ahead. Bimtang is a meadow with lodges and a view back at the pass you crossed.

12. 12Day 12Bimtang — a day in hand

    Held in reserve for the pass, because Larkya La closes in snow and a group that has to wait a day should not be a group in trouble. If the crossing went to plan, it is a short walk up to Ponkar Tal at about 4,100 metres under Manaslu's west side, or a genuine rest.

13. 13Day 13Bimtang to Tilije, 2,300 m

    Six hours down through rhododendron and pine, losing 1,400 metres and crossing back into farmland and irrigation. Warm air for the first time in a week, and the vegetation returns in stages as you drop.

14. 14Day 14Tilije to Dharapani, and drive to Besisahar

    Two hours down to Dharapani, where the trail joins the old Annapurna Circuit and the traffic reappears. Then three to four hours by jeep down the Marsyangdi to Besisahar on a road that is an experience in itself.

15. 15Day 15Besisahar to Kathmandu

    Six hours by road back to the city, with the afternoon free. Dinner with the crew, which after sixteen days on a restricted-area trail is not a formality.

16. 16Day 16Depart Kathmandu

    Transfer to the airport for your onward flight, or a spare day for Bhaktapur or Patan if you kept one.

Good to know

It is a restricted area, and that changes what you can book

Manaslu is a controlled trekking region, and the rules are not ours. Nepal requires a minimum of two trekkers on one permit, a government-licensed guide, and the permit to be applied for by a registered agency — you cannot obtain it yourself, and a solo permit does not exist. If you are travelling alone we can pair you with another walker on the same dates, and if we cannot, we will tell you rather than take a deposit and hope.

Three permits are needed: the Manaslu Restricted Area Permit, the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit, and the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit, because the trek exits through the Annapurna region at Dharapani. All three are included. We need your passport scan and photographs in advance, and the permits are issued in Kathmandu with you present, which is why day one exists.

The Restricted Area Permit is also priced by season and by the number of days, and it is the reason this trek costs more than an Annapurna teahouse trek of the same length.

The pass is the trek, and it can close

Larkya La at 5,106 metres is crossed in a single eight-to-ten hour day starting at four in the morning from a stone shelter at 4,460 metres. It is the longest, coldest and highest day, and it comes after ten days of walking.

It also closes. Fresh snow can shut the pass for a day or more, and there is no way round it — the alternative is walking back down the Budhi Gandaki, which is a week. We carry a day in hand at Bimtang for exactly this and we would rather use it than push a group over in bad conditions. Build one spare day into your international ticket as well.

Dharmasala is not a village

The night before the pass is spent in a stone shelter with basic dormitory rooms and very little of anything. In peak season it fills, and people sleep on the dining room floor. It is cold — 4,460 metres, no insulation, no heating beyond the kitchen. This is the one night of the trek that is genuinely uncomfortable, and knowing it in advance is most of the cure. Bring a sleeping bag rated to about minus fifteen.

Teahouses, and how they compare

Simpler than Annapurna's and much simpler than the Khumbu's. Twin rooms with plywood walls, shared toilets, a stove in the dining room, and menus that shorten as you climb. This is a less developed trail and the lodges reflect that, which is the trade you are making for the quiet.

Electricity is intermittent above Namrung and charging costs money. Wifi exists in patches and is bad. Carry cash in rupees — there is no ATM anywhere on the route after Arughat, and prices rise steadily with altitude because everything arrives by mule.

Altitude

The profile is good: you climb slowly for a week before anything gets high, and the Samagaon day is a real acclimatisation day rather than a rest. But you sleep at 4,460 metres and cross 5,106, and altitude sickness is possible from Samdo onwards. The usual rules — a headache that will not lift, vomiting that will not stop, confusion or loss of coordination mean going down at once. Descent from Dharmasala is straightforward; from the pass itself it is faster to go on and down to Bimtang.

Insurance

Cover for trekking to 5,500 metres and helicopter evacuation. Helicopter rescue is possible from Samagaon and Samdo and is expensive, and the Budhi Gandaki gorge is two days from a road for most of its length.

When to go

Late March to May, and late September to November. Autumn is the most reliable for the pass and the clearest for the Annapurna view on the descent. Spring is warmer low down in the gorge and brings rhododendron. The monsoon makes the gorge section genuinely dangerous — landslides, leeches and a river that has taken sections of trail before — and we do not run it then.

Questions about this trip

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