Annapurna Circuit via Tilicho Lake Trek – 15 Days

Welcome to Kathmandu. Our representative meets you at Tribhuvan International Airport and takes you to your hotel, where you can rest after the journey.

In the afternoon your guide comes to see you. Together you go through all fifteen days, including the detour to Tilicho Lake and the crossing of the Thorong La, and your guide checks your boots, down jacket, gloves and sleeping bag. They also take your passport details for the permits.

Anything you need can be found in Thamel, Kathmandu’s trekking district, a short taxi ride from most hotels.

You head west from Kathmandu by tourist bus on the Prithvi Highway, which winds down to the Trishuli River and follows it for a long way through rice terraces and riverside towns. At Dumre, you leave the highway and turn north towards the mountains.

Besisahar, at 760 m, was the starting point of the circuit before the road pushed further up the valley. The 180 km drive takes 6–7 hours with stops for tea and lunch, and you’ll arrive in the late afternoon.

Tonight’s hotel is the last place with a reliable hot shower for a while.

From Besisahar, a shared jeep climbs the Marsyangdi gorge on a narrow, rough road cut into the cliffs. Waterfalls pour down beside the road, and suspension bridges cross the river below.

At Tal, the gorge suddenly opens into a wide, flat valley floor. Tal means lake in Nepali, and the valley here looks very much like an old lake bed. Past Dharapani the road turns west, climbing through pine forest towards Chame.

The 65 km take about six hours in good weather, ending at Chame (about 2,670 m), the administrative centre of Manang district. The evening air is cool, and Annapurna II shows above the trees on a clear day.

Today you start walking, through pine forest and past the apple trees of Bhratang, with the river beside you. Beyond Bhratang the valley swings past Paungda Danda, a huge curved wall of smooth rock that rises straight up from the riverbank.

After Dhukur Pokhari, a final climb takes you to Upper Pisang (3,250 m). The village sits directly south of Pisang Peak, and across the valley the snows of Annapurna II catch the late afternoon light.

Take a short walk up to the village monastery before dinner. It helps your body adjust to the new height.

The upper trail starts with a stiff zigzag climb to Ghyaru, where you’ll want to stop and look back: Annapurna II, III and IV make one long wall across the valley.

From Ghyaru the path runs along the hillside to Ngawal, a village of flat-roofed houses packed close together, with prayer flags snapping on every roof. It then drops gently past Braka, home to an old monastery, and into Manang.

Manang is the biggest village in the upper valley and your base for the next two nights. Gangapurna (7,455 m) and a subsidiary peak of Annapurna III rise directly above it. It has a medical centre that specialises in altitude sickness, open in the main seasons.

This rest day is really an acclimatization day. In the morning your guide leads a hike above Manang, to the viewpoint over the glacier lake below Gangapurna or, for strong walkers, up towards the Ice Lake at about 4,600 m, before you come back down to sleep.

Use the afternoon to prepare for the Tilicho days. There are no shops beyond Khangsar, so buy snacks, toilet paper and spare batteries here.

Manang’s bakeries are a good place to rest your legs and warm up before the remote stretch ahead.

You leave the main circuit today and head west. The trail crosses the Marsyangdi and follows the valley to Khangsar, a small village of stone houses and the last proper settlement before the lake.

Above Khangsar the path climbs gently across open hillsides, with juniper and grazing land, to Shree Kharka (4,060 m). The few lodges here sit on a grassy shelf looking up at the snow slopes of the Tilicho peaks.

It’s a short day of 4–5 hours, which helps your body adjust to sleeping above 4,000 m for the first time.

A short day, but the most exposed walking of the trek. The trail traverses steep slopes of loose scree and sand high above the river, where small stones sometimes roll down from above.

Your guide sets the pace through these sections: walk steadily, keep a few metres between people and don’t stop to rest or take photos in the danger areas. After 3–4 hours the trail drops to Tilicho Base Camp (4,150 m), a handful of lodges in a stony valley.

Arrive by lunchtime, rest and drink plenty. The lake hike starts before sunrise tomorrow.

You start early and climb a long series of switchbacks up the slope above base camp. It’s steep and steady, about three hours of climbing, and the air gets noticeably thinner as you approach 4,900 m.

Then the path levels out and Tilicho Lake appears. At 4,919 m, it’s about 4 km long and 1.2 km wide, with an average depth of around 85 m, and the glaciers of Tilicho Peak drop straight into it. Hindus believe it is Kak Bhusundi Lake from the Ramayana, and in 2000 a Russian team made some of the highest-altitude scuba dives ever recorded here.

After time at the shore, walk back down to base camp for lunch and on to Shree Kharka for the night. With the climb and the return, it’s an 8–10 hour day.

Today you cross back towards the main circuit. From Shree Kharka the trail heads back towards Khangsar, then takes a route across the hillside that rejoins the Thorong trail around Yak Kharka. Your guide chooses the exact path depending on the conditions.

From Yak Kharka it’s a short climb up the valley to Ledar (4,200 m). After three nights above 4,000 m and a climb to almost 4,920 m at the lake, your body is far better prepared for the pass than on the standard circuit.

Leaving Ledar, you cross a small bridge and walk along a steep slope of loose stones, where your guide asks everyone to keep moving. Beyond it, the trail climbs gradually to Thorong Phedi (4,540 m).

From Phedi, the last hour is a steep pull up to Thorong High Camp (4,880 m), the final lodges below the pass. If anyone isn’t coping with the height, your guide may decide to spend the night at Phedi instead.

The afternoon is for rest, water and an early dinner. You’ll be up before dawn.

Headlamps on at around 4 or 5 in the morning. You climb slowly over moraine and snow in the dark, and as the sun rises the peaks behind you turn pink and then white. Leaving early matters, because the wind on the pass picks up a few hours after sunrise.

After 2–3 hours you reach the Thorong La at 5,416 m, a saddle hung with prayer flags. Then the long descent begins: more than 1,600 m of steep, dusty trail down towards the dry hills of Mustang.

Muktinath sits at 3,762 m. In the temple compound, water pours from 108 stone spouts, and at the small Jwala Mai shrine a flame burns on natural gas from the ground. Pilgrims come here from all over Nepal and India. Your legs will have earned their rest after 7–9 hours.

A shared jeep carries you on a long ride down past Jomsom, the headquarters of Mustang district at 2,743 m. Strong winds blow up the valley here most afternoons, which is why flights only leave in the morning.

The road then follows the Kali Gandaki through the lands of the Thakali people, past Marpha, with its stone-paved lanes and flat-roofed houses, and on through Tatopani and Beni to Pokhara. The drive takes 9–10 hours on a rough road.

If you’d rather fly, a morning flight from Jomsom to Pokhara can replace most of the drive, at extra cost and if the weather allows.

The tourist bus back to Kathmandu covers 200 km along the Trishuli valley and fills most of the day. If you get in early, there’s time for a rest or some shopping in Thamel.

In the evening, we meet for a farewell dinner to celebrate the lake and the pass.

After breakfast, our team drives you to Tribhuvan International Airport in time for your flight.

With a few extra days, you could add a jungle safari in Chitwan or a heritage tour of the Kathmandu valley.