Kimrong Khola landslide: which Annapurna trails are not safe right now (September 2026)

Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586.

Last updated 8 September 2026, evening. This is a live situation and I will update this page as soon as I have the official position from Kaski.

If you are booked on the Annapurna Base Camp trek, the Poon Hill trek or the Khopra Danda trek in the next couple of weeks, or you are on your way to Pokhara for one of them, please read this before you travel to Nayapul. This evening reports came through, carried by the Kushma Municipality page and several others, that a landslide has blocked the Kimrong Khola in Kaski district and that the police have asked residents of Nayapul, Birethanti and the settlements around them to move to safe ground, with everyone along the Modi Khola told to stay alert. Until that blockage is cleared or the local administration says otherwise, I am treating the whole Nayapul to Ghandruk and Chhomrong corridor as not safe for trekking, and we are not sending anyone in.

If you are affected and need a straight answer today, message me on WhatsApp. I would rather talk to you tonight than have you find out at the trailhead.

What we know, and what we do not

The Kimrong Khola is a side stream that comes down from the Annapurna South side and joins the Modi Khola between Ghandruk and Chhomrong, in Annapurna Rural Municipality ward 11. When a landslide dams a stream like that, water builds up behind the debris. The danger is not the landslide itself but the moment the dam gives way, which sends a wall of water and mud down the Modi Khola through Syauli Bazaar, Birethanti and Nayapul, the exact villages every Annapurna Base Camp and Poon Hill trekker walks through on day one. That is why the police have asked people living along the river to move to higher ground, and it is why I will not send a group through it on the hope that it holds.

Here is what I cannot tell you yet. I do not have a written notice from the District Administration Office in Kaski in my hands, I do not know how much water is behind the blockage, and I do not know whether the dam has started to release on its own. The same stream was blocked by a landslide in October 2023 and cleared itself within about a day, so this may pass quickly. Or it may not. I will put the official notice on this page as soon as I have it, and I will not guess in the meantime.

This comes on top of an already hard summer for this corridor. The flood on the Kimrong and Modi Khola on 11 and 12 July this year washed away the suspension bridge at Ghurjung, damaged the trail around Syauli Bazaar and two lodges near Ghandruk, and cut the road between Nayapul and Ghandruk. The trail was patched up, but the road is still not open. Karobar Daily reported on 4 September that gabion walls and road rebuilding at Birethanti were under way and that vehicles to Ghandruk were still about two weeks off, so the drive-in to Ghandruk that the Base Camp and Khopra treks normally use was already a walk from Nayapul before tonight. The TAAN Gandaki chapter, the Annapurna Conservation Area Project and the tourism police have been alert to this valley since July, and a second event in the same place inside two months is exactly why they will be cautious about reopening it.

Which treks this affects

Anything that starts or ends at Nayapul, or crosses the Kimrong Khola, is on hold with us until the all clear.

Annapurna Base Camp trek. The classic route drives to Nayapul, walks through Birethanti and Syauli Bazaar to Ghandruk, then drops to the Kimrong Khola and climbs to Chhomrong. That is the blocked stream itself. On hold.

Poon Hill trek and the Poon Hill yoga trek. The trail to Tikhedhunga and Ulleri follows the Bhurungdi Khola, not the Modi, but it starts in Nayapul and Birethanti, the two villages under the evacuation advice. You cannot walk a trail you cannot reach. On hold.

Khopra Danda trek. Starts with the drive to Ghandruk through Nayapul and Syauli Bazaar and finishes down the Poon Hill staircase to Nayapul. On hold.

Treks that pass Nayapul by road only. The Pokhara to Baglung highway crosses the Modi Khola at Nayapul. Our Mohare Danda trek, our Annapurna Circuit mountain bike tour and the road exit from Jomsom on the Annapurna Circuit all use that road to or from Beni. The trekking on those routes is well away from the Modi, but if the highway is closed at Nayapul the drive will be delayed or rerouted. For the Annapurna Circuit the simple answer is to fly out of Jomsom instead of driving, which we can arrange.

Which Annapurna treks are not affected

The Mardi Himal trek starts from Kande or Phedi on the Pokhara side and comes out at Siding, on the east side of the Mardi ridge. It never touches Nayapul, Birethanti or the Kimrong Khola, and it is open and running. If you have fixed dates and were booked on Annapurna Base Camp or Poon Hill, Mardi Himal is the natural swap, with the same big views of Machhapuchhre and Annapurna South from a quieter ridge.

The Annapurna Circuit from Besisahar up the Marsyangdi to the Thorong La is a different valley entirely and is open. As above, we fly you out of Jomsom rather than driving past Nayapul while this is live.

Everything outside the Annapurna region is unaffected by this. The Everest Base Camp trek and the whole Khumbu are open and running normally.

If you are booked with us on an affected trek

You do not need to do anything tonight except tell me what you would prefer. Nobody loses their deposit over a landslide that is nobody's fault. There are two honest options.

The first is to keep your booking and push the start date back a little. If this clears in a day or two, as it did in 2023, a delay of two or three days may be all it takes, and I can usually shuffle the Pokhara nights to absorb it. Your deposit stays exactly as it is.

The second, if your dates cannot move, is to switch to Mardi Himal or the Annapurna Circuit on your original dates. Your deposit carries straight across, we handle the permits and the change, and if there is a price difference between the two treks we settle it in Kathmandu, either way.

If you are already in Pokhara, stay in Pokhara. Do not take a taxi to Nayapul to have a look. Message me and we will sort out the next day together.

One thing to check before you rebook anything

Whichever trek you move to, make sure your insurance still fits it. Mardi Himal tops out around 4,500 metres at the upper viewpoint, and the Annapurna Circuit crosses the Thorong La at 5,416 metres, so your policy needs to cover high altitude trekking and helicopter evacuation to that height. A policy that stops at 3,000 or 4,000 metres will not do, and this is the single most common gap I see.

How to check the real status

Do not take anyone's word on this, including mine, without a source. The authority for Kaski is the District Administration Office in Pokhara, and the conservation area is managed by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, whose checkpost at Birethanti is where every permit is stamped. If either of them publishes a notice, I will put it on this page. Rumours travel faster than notices after an event like this, and old news gets shared as if it were new, so check the date on anything you are sent.

We are a licensed Kathmandu operator, registered in 2016, TAAN member 1586, three generations of family guides, and we have guides and porters who live in these villages. Their families come first tonight, and the trekking can wait a few days.

If you are booked on any Annapurna trek this month, or you are trying to decide whether to keep dates you have already committed to, message me on WhatsApp and I will give you the current position honestly. I keep a wider trail-by-trail status page for the autumn as well, at which treks are open after the floods, and the separate page on the Manaslu closure.

Shreejan Simkhada is the CEO and co-founder of The Everest Holiday, a family-run trekking company in Kathmandu, and a third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586. Every booking helps fund our Nagarjun Learning Center.