Manaslu Circuit Trekking｜Nepal

Manaslu is a restricted area. Permits are capped, a licensed guide is required by law, and the trail is walked by a fraction of the numbers who go to Everest or Annapurna. The villages still speak Tibetan dialects and keep the monasteries at their centre.

The mountain is 8,163 metres (26,781 feet), the eighth highest in the world. Its Sanskrit name means Mountain of the Spirit. It was first climbed in 1956 by a Japanese expedition and is known as one of the harder eight-thousanders. You never summit it, but for two weeks you walk a full circle around its base and watch it change shape from every angle.

The route follows the Budhi Gandaki north through one of the deepest gorges in Nepal, crosses the Larkya La at 5,106 metres, then drops into the Marsyangdi valley. The landscape shifts completely: rice terraces at the start, pine and rhododendron in the middle, bare moraine and glacier at the top. The upper villages sit close to the Tibetan border and were trade posts long before they were trekking stops.

We are a Nepali-owned company. Your guide grew up in these mountains and knows which lodge in Larkya Phedi actually has beds. Group sizes stay small.

Itinerary

Day 1: Drive from Kathmandu (1,400m) to Machha Khola (890m), 8 to 9 hours
A long road day, tarmac giving way to rough track.

Day 2: Trek to Jagat (1,340m), 6 to 7 hours
Suspension bridges, waterfalls, and hot springs at Tatopani. Jagat is the first permit checkpoint.

Day 3: Trek to Deng (1,860m), 6 to 7 hours
The gorge narrows and the first Tibetan-style prayer walls appear.

Day 4: Trek to Namrung (2,630m), 6 to 7 hours
A steady climb into pine and rhododendron. Ganesh Himal opens up behind you.

Day 5: Trek to Lho (3,180m), 4 to 5 hours
The first full view of Manaslu. Lho's Ribung Gompa sits on a ridge with the mountain directly behind it, best at sunrise.

Day 6: Trek to Samagaon (3,520m), 4 to 5 hours
A short day into the largest village on the route. Stone houses, a 500-year-old monastery, and yak pastures running to the Tibetan border.

Day 7: Trek to Samdo (3,875m), 4 to 5 hours
Above the treeline now. The last permanent settlement before the pass.

Day 8: Acclimatisation day at Samdo (3,875m), 3 to 4 hours
Not a rest day. You hike toward the old Tibet trade route and return, gaining height then sleeping low. This is what makes the pass crossing safe.

Day 9: Trek to Larkya Phedi (4,480m), 3 to 4 hours
A short walk to a single stone lodge below the pass. Cold, basic, early to bed.

Day 10: Trek to Bimthang (3,720m) via Larkya La Pass (5,106m), 8 to 9 hours
The hardest day. You leave in the dark and climb around five hours on scree and glacier. The pass is strung with prayer flags and ringed by Himlung, Cheo, and Annapurna II. Then a descent of nearly 1,400 metres into green meadows.

Day 11: Trek to Dharapani (1,963m), 6 to 7 hours
Down through forest into the Marsyangdi valley, joining the Annapurna Circuit.

Day 12: Drive to Kathmandu (1,400m) or Pokhara (822m), 8 to 9 hours