The Annapurna Circuit today: what the road changed, and what it didn't

Thorong La is still 5,416 m and still the best pass day in Nepal. But the trek that gets you there is not the one your guidebook from 2009 describes.

By Prakash Tamang · 10 min read · Updated 1 August 2026

For twenty years the Annapurna Circuit was the trek in Nepal — three weeks, a full lap of a mountain range, from subtropical valley to high desert. Then the road came up the Marsyangdi from Besisahar and down the Kali Gandaki from Muktinath, and a lot of people wrote the trek off.

They were wrong, but not completely wrong. The lower Marsyangdi walking is diminished. What survived is the part that mattered most: Manang, the approach to Thorong La, the pass itself, and the drop into a Tibetan-plateau landscape on the other side.

The modern version of this trek is shorter and sharper. We run it in twelve days, starting where the walking is still good, and it is a better trip than the dusty three-week slog the road left behind.

Where to start walking

We drive to Chame or Dharapani and start there. You skip two to three days of walking on and beside a jeep road, and you lose almost nothing except dust. Purists disagree. We have walked both and we are comfortable with the recommendation.

From Chame the trail rebuilds itself into something wonderful. The Marsyangdi valley narrows, the Paungda Danda rock face rises out of nowhere as a single 1,500 m slab, and the vegetation thins from pine into juniper and scrub as you climb toward Upper Pisang.

Take the upper route from Pisang to Manang via Ghyaru and Ngawal. It is a harder climb and it costs you a couple of hours. It also puts you on a high shelf directly opposite Annapurna II and III, walking past Tibetan-style villages with prayer walls. Skipping it to save time on the flat lower path is the single most common regret we hear.

Manang, and the art of doing nothing

Manang at 3,519 m is where the trek is won or lost. You spend two nights, and the second day is not a rest day in the lying-in-bed sense — it is an acclimatisation day where you climb several hundred metres to Ice Lake or Praken Gompa and come back down to sleep.

That climb-high-sleep-low pattern is the single most effective thing you can do to arrive at the pass feeling strong. The people who struggle on Thorong La are almost always the people who treated Manang as a lie-in. Manang also has bakeries, a cinema that shows mountaineering films in a stone hut, and a daily altitude-sickness talk from the Himalayan Rescue Association. Go to the talk. It is free, it is delivered by a doctor who has seen the failure modes, and it is better than any advice you will read online, including ours.

The pass day

From High Camp it is a four to five hour climb to 5,416 m, starting in the dark and cold, on a path that is never technical but never stops going up. You will take about three times as many breaths per step as you did in Manang. That is normal.

The summit is a scatter of prayer flags, a small tea shop, and a sign. The view is enormous but the memory people keep is usually the feeling rather than the panorama — a lot of people get quietly emotional up there.

Then the descent, which is where the day gets properly hard: around 1,600 m down to Muktinath, on loose scree, on legs that have already worked for six hours. It takes as long as the ascent and hurts more. Wind picks up on the pass through the morning, which is why we leave High Camp before first light rather than for the sunrise.

The other side

Muktinath is a major pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists — 108 water spouts, an eternal flame fed by natural gas, and a constant flow of pilgrims who have come by jeep and are not remotely interested in your trek. It is a good reminder that these mountains are somebody's home and somebody's temple before they are anybody's route.

Below that, the Kali Gandaki opens into wide, wind-scoured, Tibetan-plateau country: ochre cliffs, apple orchards at Marpha, and the deepest gorge on earth measured from the peaks on either side. The wind here is famous and predictable — calm mornings, ferocious from late morning onward. Everyone walks this section early and takes the afternoon bus or flight if they are done. That is not cheating. That is what the locals do.

Tilicho, if you have the days

Tilicho Lake at 4,919 m is a three-day detour from Manang and it is the most spectacular optional extra in the Annapurna region — a turquoise lake below a wall of ice, in a landscape with no vegetation at all.

The approach crosses a notorious landslide section that people photograph and worry about. In dry, stable conditions it is a straightforward if airy traverse. After heavy rain or fresh snow it is a genuine hazard and we will turn a group around rather than push it.

Combining Tilicho with the Circuit makes a fifteen to sixteen day trip and is the single best use of an extra three days anywhere in Nepal.

Walk it with us

Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.

Annapurna Circuit & Thorong La12 days · 5,416 mRs 167,400 · See dates →Tilicho Lake Trek13 days · 5,416 mRs 180,800 · See dates →Jomsom Muktinath Trek8 days · 3,760 mRs 127,200 · See dates →

Questions we get asked

How hard is Thorong La really?

Physically it is a long hard day rather than a technical one — no ropes, no exposure, just altitude and duration. The difficulty is entirely about how well you acclimatised in the week before it.

What if someone in the group cannot cross?

We turn back to Manang and arrange a jeep or a flight round. It happens a few times a season and it is not a failure. Crossing a 5,416 m pass with someone who is deteriorating is how people die on this route.

Is the road really that bad now?

Below Chame and below Muktinath, yes — it is a dusty jeep track and walking it is not fun. Between Chame and Muktinath, which is the heart of the trek, you are on trail almost the entire way.

Do I need a down jacket?

Yes. High Camp before dawn in November is bitterly cold, often well below freezing with wind. If you do not own one, rent it from us in Lakeside for a few dollars a day rather than buying.

Best months?

Late September to mid November, and March to mid May. The pass can close with snow in winter and the trek is not worth doing in monsoon. October is peak for a reason.