What the Annapurna Circuit was before the road. Two weeks around Manaslu — 8,163 m, the eighth-highest mountain on earth — from subtropical river gorge to a 5,106 m pass, through Tibetan-Buddhist villages that see a tenth of the Annapurna traffic.
What the walking is like
A long, honest walk that changes climate zone about every three days. You start at 700 m in rice terraces on the Budhi Gandaki, cross and recross the river on suspension bridges for the best part of a week, and climb out of the gorge into Nubri — flat-roofed stone villages, mani walls and prayer flags, culturally closer to Tibet than to Kathmandu.
Larke La at 5,106 m is the crux: a five-to-seven-hour ascent from Dharamsala in the dark, then a long knee-punishing descent to Bimthang. It is not technical, but it is the single hardest day we sell outside of peak climbing, and it comes at the end of eleven days of walking rather than the start.
Restricted area rules
Manaslu is a restricted area, and that is not a formality. You cannot trek it solo, you cannot trek it as a single permit holder, and you cannot trek it without a government-licensed guide — the checkpoint at Jagat turns people back for exactly this. The permit is also priced by season and issued for a fixed window.
We handle all of it, we carry the paper copies, and if you are travelling alone we will pair you with an existing departure so the two-trekker minimum is met legally rather than with a fake second name on a permit, which is a thing that happens and which we will not do.
- Manaslu Restricted Area Permit — minimum two trekkers, licensed guide required
- MCAP (Manaslu Conservation Area) entry permit
- ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area) entry permit — the route exits through it
Season and access
Autumn is the reliable window; spring works and is quieter still. Larke La can close with snow either side of those, and in a bad winter it stays shut. Access is a rough day's drive from Kathmandu to Machha Khola and a jeep out from Dharapani at the far end — no flights, which is one reason the itinerary holds together so well.
Manaslu Circuit FAQs
Yes, by joining one of our group departures. The restricted-area permit needs two trekkers on it, so we put you on a trip that already has one. What we will not do is file a permit with a name that is not walking with you.
Similar altitude, longer day, rougher ground on the descent and far less infrastructure either side. If Thorong La is the hardest day of the Annapurna Circuit, Larke La is that day with fewer people to share it with.
Teahouse the whole way now, though the lodges are simpler than Annapurna's and the hot-shower-and-wifi assumption should be left at Kathmandu. Dharamsala before the pass is the most basic night of the trip.
