Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal is a trek in central Nepal that climbs to an altitude of 5,400 meters through Thorong La Pass, one of the highest trekking passes, below Peaks that rise 6,000 to 8,000 meters in elevation from the Annapurna range.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal takes 15 – 20 days. September to November is the best time to trek with less risk.
If you are thinking about December where the shoulder season promises much smaller crowds but it is a risk of avalanches frostbite and the chances of losing one’s way in the deep snow that early winter can bring to the pass.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal has often been voted as the best long-distance trek in the world, though road construction is threatening its reputation and its future as a classic trek.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal started the journey from Kathmandu and couldn’t wait to escape the hustle and bustle of modern Nepal for the mountains.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal normally begins at Besisahar, a seven-hour drive from Kathmandu.
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Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal, The trek follows an established and well-marked route, making numerous river crossings over steel and wooden bridges.
Passing first through lush rainforests with waterfalls seemingly every 20 meters and plenty of wildlife. Tea houses and lodges along the circuit are available for meals and accommodations with villages typically no more than 1 to 3 hours apart allowing for a fairly flexible itinerary.
In the off-season, you may not find many tea houses and in some cases, entire villages were closed for the winter.
Side trails have been established to offer new excursions to trekkers to lesser-visited towns, some as alternate routes and others as separate multi-day camping trips.
This could provide trekkers with some of the atmosphere lost over the years from overexposure to tourism, although many of the villagers have managed to maintain their charm.
You can wake up early in the morning to see clear skies with your first glimpse of the surrounding mountains. The old village of Upper Pisang, sitting high above Lowest Pisang, offered some incredible mountain views.
You will start to feel the effects of altitude, with thin air freezing temperatures at night. This marked the beginning of the upper portion of the Manang District, home to about 5,000 in 6 main villages.
The region is in the rain shadow of the Annapurna range, where the people raise wheat barley, buckwheat, potatoes, and beans, the cold air, and climate limiting them to a single crop annually.
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Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal, There are two routes to Manang – a lower one that follows the valley floor, and a more strenuous but far more scenic, higher route.
The views of Annapurna II and III used to be incredible, and spending a night in Ngawal would help you to acclimatize as you will start the way towards Thorong La.
When you reach the bustling village of Manang which sits atop a plateau below the summits of Annapurna and Gangapurna less than 8 km away, to find it all but deserted.
At an early checkpoint, you can know the information about how many people are trekking now. In the low season may be a maximum of 5 people’s trek in a day but In the high season, this would normally be over 200.
The eastern half of the town is lined with lodges, trekking shops, and even a video cafe, most of them used to be closed for the low season.
The medieval Western Old Town, a compact bundle of 500 flat roof houses, separated by narrow alleyways.
From there you will be able to get in touch with your friends and family back home over the holidays via two-way GPS text messages allowing them to track your progress online along the way.
You can make your decision about how many days you want to spend here, acclimatizing for the higher elevations to come, although you could easily spend several days here exploring all the amazing sights nearby.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal, Braga is said to be one of the most picturesque villages in the Annapurnas, with most of the villages 209 houses stacked atop the other each with an open veranda formed by the neighbor’s rooftop.
Nepal is a trail runner’s dream, and there’s even a trail race covering the entire Annapurna Circuit.
In the off-season may be the Manang will forecast snow anytime, so You need to be quick. The pass is usually snowbound from mid-December to last February, but snow can block the pass at any time of the year.
In October 2014 the snowstorm would hit several points along the circuit, claiming the lives of 32 trekkers from several countries and standing hundreds of others, many of whom had to be rescued.
Trekking The Annapurna Circuit In Nepal, From Manang to Yak Chandra, you will be treated to countless displays of nature at its finest.
Hordes of crow-like birds and large Himalayan Griffons, the largest and heaviest bird found in the Himalayas with a wingspan up to 10 feet, circled above throughout the day.
Horses are still an important means of transport in the relatively flat upper portion of the Manang valley, where blue sheep and sometimes snow leopards are said to magically appear.
People have long used the trail through Thorong La to bring herds of sheep and yaks in and out of Manang.
Then need to continue on up the narrowing valley, past landslides, and through an occasional gust of wind that threatened to blow you right off the trail.
Thorung Phedi sits surrounded by vertical cliffs about an hour below the high camp above at 4,850 meters.
The lodges can get quite crowded here in the high season, especially if snow has backed up traffic over the pass, and nights can be miserable because of the altitude and early departure.
Sometimes because of windy, you can get headaches and nausea and also you need to press on to get Thorong La Pass.
You can take one last long look at the views to the east and hope for good weather in the morning. You can wake up again to clear skies, having to beat the snow despite your late-season attempt at the pass.
Now the only challenge would be contending with the altitude. It takes most between 3 to 5 hours to reach the summit, but the altitude and the many false summits can make the climb feel like it goes on forever.
You can finally reach the wide Thorong La, at an altitude of 5,416 meters. From here you could see the great barrier ridge which separates the drier Tibet-like region of Manang from the rest of Nepal.
All that was left now was to drop 1,600 meters straight down to Muktinath and the luxury of having the first warm shower in two weeks.
After a night in Muktinath, you can continue on to the medieval village of Kagbeni which sits in a green oasis at the junction of two rivers.
The trek down the barren Kali Gandaki Valley is said to be in a state of flux, with jeeps and minibusses now shuttling up the valley all the way to move to Muktinath.
Many dismiss the track at this point as being over. There was even evidence of road construction snaking its way from Muktinath up to Thorong La Pass.
Mountain bikers have already started to tackle the route, some even riding the entire circuit carrying their bikes for large sections of the Manang side. Certainly, fewer walk up the valley compared to even just a few years back.
But as in other areas, the network of alternate trails takes you away from the road, some said to offer some of the prettiest landscapes and views in the valley.
And as with the other alternative routes, the limited number of lodges and trekkers give it the feeling of trekking 20 years ago.
Kagbeni still feels like a medieval village, with its closely packed mud house, dark tunnels, and alleys.
As the Gateway to upper Mustang, this is the furthest north you can venture without a restricted area permit. From there you can walk on to Jomsom before catching a flight back to Pokhara.
Road construction will certainly continue to change this trek over the years to come. Lodges may begin to close as new day hikes because more accessible, shifting the focus of tourism from through-trekkers to day-trippers.
But as new areas around Annapurna continue to open for trekkers in the Upper Mustang region, there’s hope still that these can replace the charm that continues to be eroded by the construction of roads.
No matter what route you choose, the people, the culture, and the incredible landscapes on the Annapurna Circuit are sure to combine for an experience like none other.
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