Annapurna

PeaksGandaki,Nepal

A ring of Nepalese snow peaks closed around one hidden basin, trekked into through Gurung villages, below the first mountain over 8,000 metres anyone climbed.

September·Quiet month

Jun–Sep

The monsoon normally breaks around 13 June and clears in early October. Dawn can still be clear, but cloud closes over the ring of peaks by mid-morning. Leeches come out in the forest and landslides cut the Pokhara road. Lodges thin out rather than close.

Year-round The ice ring walling the Sanctuary never melts and the glacier under it never stops moving. One gorge, the Modi Khola, is the only way in, and its permit gates are staffed all year.

Annapurna is a ring of snow peaks closed around a single hidden basin, and the way into the middle of it is a footpath rather than a climb. The Annapurna Sanctuary is a glacial amphitheatre with one way in: a narrow gorge cut by the Modi Khola river, which opens without warning into a bowl walled by summits on every side. Guarding the gate is Machapuchare, the sharp "Fishtail" peak that has never been climbed and stays closed to mountaineers because it is held sacred to Shiva. Above the far rim stands Annapurna I at 8,091 metres — the first mountain over 8,000 metres that anyone ever climbed, reached by a French team in 1950, and still the deadliest of the giant peaks. The way in is a walk. From the lakeside town of Pokhara the trail rises slowly through terraced rice fields, moss-hung rhododendron forest, and the stone villages of the Gurung and Magar. Most trekkers take about a week to reach Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 metres. Inside the basin you are hemmed in on all sides by ice. At first light the summit of Annapurna I glows red, the air smells of cold stone, and the only sounds are prayer flags snapping and the distant crack of the glacier shifting. After dark, far from any town, the Milky Way arches over the peaks. The whole Sanctuary now lies within the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal's largest protected region, and every trekker carries an ACAP permit and a TIMS card. No rope and no ice axe are needed to stand at the very heart of the high Himalaya — only the week of walking that gets you in.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Sleep in the basin, don't day-trip it — cloud fills the amphitheatre most late mornings, so the clear views belong to trekkers who overnight at base camp, not those arriving at noon.
The gorge below the Sanctuary is avalanche country — the narrow stretch above Deurali slides after heavy snow, and in winter and early spring guides cross it only in the safe early hours.
Two permits are mandatory — an ACAP conservation permit and a TIMS card, both bought in Pokhara or Kathmandu and checked at gates along the trail.
Altitude, not gradient, is the test — the climb to 4,130 metres is gentle, so add a night to acclimatise and keep each day's height gain slow to head off altitude sickness.
Spring trades sharp views for colour — March to May wraps the lower trail in blooming rhododendron but hazier peaks, while October and November give the crispest summit views after the monsoon.

Things to do

1
Trek up to Annapurna Base Camp
Follow the week-long trail up the Modi Khola valley to the glacial basin at 4,130 metres, sleeping in teahouses hemmed in on every side by an unbroken wall of snow peaks. The river runs milky with glacial melt the whole length of the route, and you cross and re-cross it on long suspension bridges strung high above the water. Between the villages and the Sanctuary the path tunnels through rhododendron and bamboo forest threaded by waterfalls. In spring whole hillsides of it turn red and pink with bloom.
2
Stay in a Gurung village
Break the climb in Ghandruk, a steep village of slate-roofed stone houses, and share dal bhat with Gurung families whose sons have long filled the ranks of the Gurkha regiments.
3
Wake before dawn at Annapurna Base Camp
Overnight in the teahouses rather than arriving at midday, then get up before sunrise and step out onto the open basin floor while the air is at its coldest. For a few short minutes the fishtail spire and Annapurna's face catch fire overhead before the light flattens, and you want to be outside before cloud closes the amphitheatre by late morning.

Watch

Nearby

18 km