Annapurna Circuit trek — the complete route guide

Roughly 160 km anticlockwise from Besisahar over Thorong La to Muktinath, then down the Kali Gandaki to Jomsom and out. Anticlockwise is not optional in practice: it gives you the gradual ascent your body needs before the pass.

Think of it as four distinct phases rather than a numbered day list, because road transfers now change the day count so much.

The pass day is long, cold, high and one-directional: once you commit from Thorong Phedi there is no lodge until Muktinath, several hours down the far side. That is why everyone starts between 3 and 5 a.m.

The 2014 Annapurna disaster, when an unseasonal blizzard killed dozens of trekkers and guides on and around this pass, is the reason weather judgement here is not negotiable. The lesson was not that the pass is deadly; it was that people crossed in conditions they should have waited out because they had a schedule.

Do not cross in bad weather or on fresh deep snow. Waiting a day at Phedi costs a day. Guides and lodge owners at Phedi watch that pass every day of their working lives — their judgement beats your itinerary.

The same two as the rest of the Annapurna region — and worth noting that the circuit passes the entrance to Upper Mustang at Kagbeni, which is a restricted area you may not enter on these permits.

Roads now run far up both sides. On the Manang side vehicles reach Chame and beyond; on the Mustang side a road runs from Jomsom down the Kali Gandaki and up to Muktinath. Walking on a dusty jeep road is genuinely unpleasant, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.

Two things make the circuit worth doing anyway. First, the NATT (New Annapurna Trekking Trails) network of marked alternative footpaths deliberately routes walkers off the road for much of the way — insist your itinerary uses them. Second, the section that matters most, Manang to Thorong La to Muktinath, has no road and cannot have one.

The practical modern circuit: jeep from Besisahar to Chame or Manang, walk the high trails and the pass, then jeep or fly out from Jomsom. That is eight to twelve days of good walking with almost no road time — and it is what most well-run agencies now sell.

Muktinath (3,760 m) is one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in the Himalaya, sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists — a Vishnu temple with 108 water spouts, an eternal natural-gas flame burning over water, and a Buddhist gompa alongside. Hindu pilgrims regard it as one of the eight most sacred shrines.

You will arrive there off a 5,416 m pass at the same time as pilgrims who have driven up from Pokhara in a day. That contrast — trekkers and pilgrims meeting at the same shrine from opposite directions — is one of the more memorable things about this route.

Note the altitude risk for the driving route: Pokhara to Muktinath in a day is a 3,000 m gain by vehicle, and people do get seriously unwell doing it.