How to walk in these hills: pace, poles and the descent

Nepali hill paths are stone staircases, not gradients. The technique is different from walking at home, and it is learnable in about a day.

By Dawa Gurung · 6 min read · Updated 1 August 2026

Fourteen seasons of walking behind people has taught me that almost everyone arrives with the wrong technique, and that almost everyone can fix it in a day if somebody tells them.

The core of it: Nepali trails are stairs. Not slopes with the occasional step — genuine stone staircases climbing for hours, built for feet and hooves over centuries. Walking them like a hill at home does not work. This is what I say on the first morning.

Go absurdly slowly at the start

The single most common mistake is starting too fast. The first twenty minutes feel easy, so people walk at their normal speed, and by the second hour they are stopping every hundred steps.

The pace that works feels wrong for the first twenty minutes and exactly right for the next four hours. If you can hold a conversation in full sentences, you are going at about the right speed.

Watch the porters. They are carrying twice what you are and they are going slower than you want to. That is not politeness — it is the pace that works.

Short steps on stairs

On a long staircase, take the smallest step that gets you to the next stone rather than the biggest one you can manage. Big steps use the large muscles hard and burn through your legs.

Put the whole foot down where you can. Toe-only on the edge of a step is how calves cramp on day three. Set a rhythm and keep it through the flat sections rather than speeding up and slowing down. Consistency is what gets you up 3,300 steps to Ulleri.

The descent, which is what actually hurts

Almost everyone worries about going up and is undone by going down. Descending is where knees, quads and toes take damage, and where most trekking injuries happen.

Poles. Two of them, set slightly longer than for climbing, planted ahead of you on steep ground. They take roughly a third of the load off your knees and they are the single most effective thing on this page.

Keep your knees soft rather than locked, land quietly, and take small steps. If you can hear yourself thumping down, you are doing damage.

Boots that fit with room at the front. Toes jammed into the end of a boot for four hours of descent is how people lose toenails, which is common and entirely avoidable.

Breathing and altitude

Above 3,000 m, breathe out deliberately rather than concentrating on breathing in. Most people under-exhale at altitude and then wonder why they feel short of breath.

Pressure breathing on a hard climb — a forceful exhale through pursed lips — helps more than most people expect. Your guide will demonstrate.

And slow down further. The pace that worked at 2,000 m is too fast at 4,000 m, and adjusting rather than pushing is the whole skill.

The small things

Drink before you are thirsty. Three to four litres a day at altitude is normal and most people manage half of that.

Adjust layers before you overheat, not after. Stopping to strip off a jacket at the top of a climb is stopping ten minutes too late.

Look after your feet at every break — socks straight, laces adjusted, and deal with a hot spot the moment you feel one. A blister caught early is a plaster; caught late it is three bad days.

Eat more than you feel like. Appetite drops at altitude and your body needs the calories to adapt.

What experience actually looks like

Not speed. The experienced walkers on any trail are the ones going steadily, in the right layers, who arrive looking much as they did when they set off.

They stop less, because they are not recovering. They eat and drink on the move. They put the jacket on before the ridge, not on it.

None of that is fitness. It is a set of small habits and you can have most of them by the end of your second day.

Walk it with us

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

Annapurna Base Camp7 days · 4,130 mRs 100,400 · See dates →Poon Hill Sunrise Trek3 days · 3,210 mRs 46,800 · See dates →Australian Camp Sunrise HikeFull day · 2,060 mRs 7,900 · See dates →Trekking Gear RentalRent by the dayFrom Rs 300 per item / day · See dates →

Questions we get asked

Do I really need trekking poles?

On any trek with sustained descent, yes. They are the cheapest and most effective injury prevention available and they cost a couple of dollars a day to rent here.

How fit do I need to be?

Able to walk five or six hours on consecutive days without dreading the next one. Technique and pace matter more than fitness for most people on most routes.

What is the best training before I come?

Walking downhill, on steps, with a daypack. Everyone trains for the climb; the descent is what hurts.

Should I take painkillers to keep going?

For general aches, occasionally, and it is worth thinking about. Masking a specific joint pain so you can keep walking on it is how a niggle becomes an injury — tell your guide instead.

How do I know if I am going too fast?

If you cannot speak in full sentences, you are. That test works at every altitude and it is the only one you need.