Annapurna Base Camp via Poon Hill Trek – 14 Days

Our airport team meets your flight at Tribhuvan International Airport and takes you through the Kathmandu traffic to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours, to sleep off the flight or walk the lanes nearby.

Later your guide comes by to go over all fourteen days, from the stone stairs below Ghorepani to the cold nights in the Sanctuary. They’ll check your boots, rain jacket and warm layers, and take a copy of your passport so they can arrange the ACAP permit and TIMS card.

Anything you’re missing, from trekking poles to a fleece, can be bought or rented in Thamel.

A tourist bus takes you out of the Kathmandu valley in the morning and joins the Prithvi Highway at Naubise. Built with Chinese help and finished in 1974, it runs 174 km west through river valleys and hill towns to Pokhara, with stops for tea and lunch on the way.

Pokhara is where most Annapurna treks begin. The Annapurna Sanctuary, your goal, lies only about 40 km to the north, out of sight behind the green hills above the lake. On a clear evening the pointed summit of Machhapuchhre shows above them.

Spend the evening by Phewa Lake and sort your bags: trek clothes go in the duffel, and the rest stays at the hotel. If you’d rather not spend the day on the road, the flight takes about half an hour, at extra cost.

A shared jeep takes you west out of Pokhara in the morning to Nayapul and on to Birethanti, a village on the Modi Khola where your permits are checked at the conservation area office. From here you’re on foot.

The trail heads up a side valley past farms and small lodges to Hile and then Tikhedhunga, at about 1,480 m. Above Tikhedhunga the real climb begins: a winding staircase of stone steps that gains almost 600 m up the side of the valley to Ulleri. Take it one step at a time, and stand aside on the uphill side when porters or mule trains come past.

A road now reaches Ulleri too, so you may hear the odd jeep, but the old stone stairs are the way to arrive. Rest your legs this evening; tomorrow climbs again, though more gently.

From Ulleri the steps carry on for a while, then the path settles into a steady climb through forest, past the small lodge villages of Banthanti and Nangethanti. Near Banthanti, look up through the trees for your first sight of Machhapuchhre’s fishtail summit.

This is rhododendron country. Ghorepani sits in the middle of one of the largest rhododendron forests in the world, and eight of the 32 rhododendron species found in Nepal grow in the area. The tree rhododendron, lali gurans, is Nepal’s national flower, and from February into April these hills turn red, pink and white.

Ghorepani’s stone houses and blue tin roofs sit on a ridge near the top of the climb. The name dates from the old trading days, when travellers stopped here to water their horses: ghora means horse and pani means water. Get to bed early, as tomorrow starts in the dark.

You leave the lodge by headlamp well before dawn and climb a steep stone path through the forest to the top of Poon Hill. Entry is by ticket, and the viewing tower on the summit stands in memory of Tek Bahadur Poon, a former Indian Army major who gave the hill its name. It used to be called Lumthung ko Danda.

As the sky lightens, more than 20 snowy summits appear along the northern horizon. Dhaulagiri (8,167 m), the seventh-highest mountain in the world, whose name means dazzling white mountain, rises to the west. Further east stand Annapurna South, Annapurna I, Hiunchuli and the sharp tip of Machhapuchhre. Between Dhaulagiri and the Annapurnas runs the Kali Gandaki, one of the deepest gorges in the world.

Back in Ghorepani for breakfast, you set off east, climbing a little to Deurali before the trail runs mostly downhill through rhododendron and oak forest to Tadapani, a small group of lodges in the forest with Machhapuchhre in view. It’s a long day after an early start, so sleep early.

From Tadapani the trail drops steeply through forest to the Kimrung Khola, then climbs out of the valley to Chhomrong (2,170 m), a big Gurung village spread down a steep hillside facing Annapurna South and Hiunchuli.

Chhomrong is the last village before the Sanctuary. It was from here, in 1956, that the British officer Jimmy Roberts set out to explore the gorge above, and today it’s where your trail joins the main path to base camp.

Then comes the classic Chhomrong workout: down hundreds of stone steps to a suspension bridge over the Chhomrong Khola, and straight back up the other side to Sinuwa. Rooms here can be hard to find in October, and if Lower Sinuwa is full, your guide will take you a little further up the trail to Upper Sinuwa.

Today you enter the gorge of the Modi Khola, the only way into the Sanctuary, squeezed between the peaks of Hiunchuli and Machhapuchhre. Above Sinuwa the path climbs through damp, mossy forest, then drops on stone steps to Bamboo and carries on upstream to Dovan, named after the meeting of two streams there.

When Jimmy Roberts climbed this gorge in 1956, it took him three days, “most of the way by dismal bamboo slogging”, in his words. A well-worn trail and a string of lodges make it much easier today.

You’ll also notice meat disappearing from the menus. Gurung custom long kept eggs and meat out of the Sanctuary, which local people hold sacred, and most lodges above Chhomrong still keep to it.

Himalaya is just four lodges in the gorge, cool and damp in the afternoon shade. Change into dry clothes as soon as you arrive.

The path climbs past Hinku Cave, a huge overhanging rock where trekkers still shelter from the rain, to Deurali (3,230 m), where the forest thins out to grass and low shrubs. Above Deurali the valley opens out. This stretch can be hit by avalanches after heavy snow, so your guide checks conditions with the lodges before you go on.

Machhapuchhre Base Camp is a cluster of lodges right under the mountain. Machhapuchhre means fish’s tail, after its double summit, and it’s held sacred as the home of the god Shiva. In 1957 a British team led by Jimmy Roberts was allowed to try it on condition that no one set foot on the top, and two of its climbers turned back about 46 m short. No climbing permits have been issued since.

You sleep almost 800 m higher than last night, so walk slowly, keep drinking and tell your guide about any headache. There’s a first-aid centre here if you need it.

A short walk takes you up the last gentle slopes into the Sanctuary. Some trekkers leave in the dark to arrive for sunrise, but there’s no need to rush: you have the whole afternoon up here, and tomorrow’s sunrise too.

Annapurna Base Camp sits in a high bowl ringed by peaks. Straight ahead is Annapurna I (8,091 m), the tenth-highest mountain on Earth, whose name means everlasting food in Sanskrit. Its south face, about 3,000 m of rock and ice, is one of the hardest climbs in the world, first climbed in 1970 by Don Whillans and Dougal Haston of a British team.

Around you stand Gangapurna, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli and Machhapuchhre, seen here from a new angle. The walls are so high that even in midsummer the Sanctuary gets only about seven hours of sunshine a day. Local Gurung people once believed it held gold and treasure left by the Nagas, the serpent gods.

It’s cold once the sun goes. Wrap up and watch the last light leave Annapurna I.

Set your alarm for first light and step outside in every layer you own. The sun reaches the summit of Annapurna I long before it reaches the camp, so you stand in frosty shade watching the top of the mountain turn gold, then white.

After breakfast you retrace your steps down the valley, through Machhapuchhre Base Camp, Deurali, Himalaya and Dovan, all the way to Bamboo.

It’s a big day: about 1,800 m of descent, much of it on rough stone steps. Use your poles, shorten your stride and stop whenever your knees ask for a rest. By evening you’re back in damp forest beside a loud river, a long way from the ice of the morning.

The morning starts with a climb out of the bamboo to Sinuwa, then a drop to the Chhomrong Khola and the long staircase back up to Chhomrong. Its lodges make a good lunch stop, and it’s your last close view of Hiunchuli and Annapurna South.

From Chhomrong a separate path drops steeply through fields and forest to Jhinu Danda, a small village above the Modi Khola.

The natural hot springs are a 15–20 minute walk below the village, beside the river, with the top pool hanging over the edge of the water. Bring a swimsuit and a small towel; after nine days on the trail, the warm water is the best thing for stiff legs. The caretakers may ask for a small donation, and the pools close in the monsoon months of June and July.

There’s time for one more soak in the morning if you want it. Jeeps now drive up to Jhinu Danda, so your walking ends in the village.

The road follows the Modi Khola down past Syauli Bazaar to Birethanti, where you started nine days ago, and then on to Pokhara. It’s rough in places, and monsoon floods sometimes wash parts of it away, so the drive can take longer than planned.

The afternoon is yours: a hot shower, a good meal by Phewa Lake or a boat out on the water.

A tourist bus takes you back east along the Prithvi Highway in the morning, crossing the Madi River at Damauli on a 370 m bridge, and climbs back into the Kathmandu valley later in the day.

There’s time to rest or pick up gifts in Thamel before our farewell dinner together, a chance to look back on sunrise at Poon Hill and your nights in the Sanctuary. If you’d rather fly, there are short flights from Pokhara at extra cost.

Your trip ends after breakfast, when a driver collects you for the run to Tribhuvan International Airport, with plenty of time for check-in.

If you’d like to stay longer, a safari in Chitwan National Park or a day in the old city of Bhaktapur is easy to add.