Kapuche, a glacier lake at 2,546 m and four days from Lakeside
Glacial lakes normally sit above 4,000 m and cost you a week of acclimatising. This one doesn't, and most trekkers have never heard of it.
By the Lakeshore team · 6 min read · Updated 5 October 2026
Kapuche sits at 2,546 m, which is almost absurdly low for a glacier lake. Everywhere else in Nepal, standing beside glacial meltwater means a week of walking and several nights above 4,000 m. Here you drive out of Pokhara after breakfast and you're looking at the lake on day three, with no altitude preparation at all.
It comes down to the shape of the ground. The wall of Annapurna II and IV rises so steeply out of the Madi valley that the glacier reaches a long way down before it stops, and the meltwater collects in a gorge that still has forest at the lake's edge.
So you get milky turquoise water, a wall of rock and ice straight above it, and rhododendron growing round the shore. We don't know of anywhere else that puts those together.
Four days, and how they go
Day one is a drive northeast from Pokhara to Sikles, a large Gurung village at about 2,000 m, and an afternoon walking around it. Sikles is as much the point of the trip as the lake. It has slate roofs and stone lanes, and it's a working farming village.
On day two you walk up the Madi valley through forest and past waterfalls to Hugu, a herders' settlement. Day three is the push to the lake and back, and it's the hard part. The path through the gorge is rough, steep and sometimes loose, with a couple of sections where you use your hands.
Then you drive home. That's four days door to door from Lakeside, and you've seen a glacier.
What you see at the lake
The lake is small and an intense pale blue-green, the colour of rock flour suspended in meltwater. Above it the wall climbs more than four vertical kilometres to the top of Annapurna II at 7,937 m.
Ice falls off it, not all the time but often enough that you'll probably hear a crack and a long rumble while you sit there, and now and then see the powder come down. For most people it's the closest they'll get to an active glacier without mountaineering.
The lake sits in a gorge, so it's in shade for much of the day. Late morning is when the light reaches the water and the colour looks the way it does in photographs, so that's the time to be there.
Why it's so quiet
The route was opened up for trekking only recently, and it's on the eastern side of the Annapurnas, away from the Ghorepani and Ghandruk corridors where most of the lodges and the marketing are.
We surveyed twenty-five Nepali trekking operators while researching this page. Only four of them sell Kapuche. It's a good trek that simply isn't on the routes their Kathmandu offices already run. For you that means local teahouses and homestays instead of purpose-built lodges, no queue at the viewpoint, and a village that's still pleased to see visitors. We run it with a Gurung guide from Pokhara and a private jeep to Sikles and back.
Combining it with Kori
Kapuche and Kori Danda share the same approach through Sikles, so the greedy version is to do both. Go up to the lake first, then climb to the ridge at 3,800 m for the panorama, then come down.
That makes a six to seven day trip, and it's the best short-trek value in the whole Annapurna region. You get a glacier, a high ridge and a Gurung village, and you never set foot on the crowded trails.
Tell us if you want it built that way. It isn't a standard package because so few people ask, which is the best reason to ask.
Walk it with us
Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.
Questions we get asked
Is it really the lowest glacier lake in Nepal?
It's widely described as the lowest-altitude glacial lake you can walk to in the country, and at 2,546 m we haven't found a lower one. Treat that as a very strong claim, not an official measurement.
How hard is it if the altitude is low?
Harder than the numbers suggest. The final approach is steep, rough and exposed in places. Here fitness and sure feet matter more than lungs, which is unusual for Nepal and catches people out.
Do I need altitude acclimatisation?
No. Nothing on this trek is high enough to need it. If you have four days and no time to acclimatise, this trek gives you the most for them.
When is the best time?
October to April for clear weather, and in spring the rhododendron flowers around the lake. Avoid the monsoon. The gorge section is prone to landslides, and we won't take groups through it after heavy rain.
What is the accommodation like?
Homestays and simple lodges in Sikles and Hugu. They're clean, warm and family-run, with short menus. This is village hospitality, not the teahouse industry, and most people prefer it.
Still deciding?
Tell us your dates and how much walking you've done, and we'll tell you whether Kori Danda Trek is right for you. If it isn't, we'll say so.
Nothing to pay online. We confirm your dates first.
Or call the office +977 61-457830