Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586. Last checked: 27 September 2026. This is a live situation and I update this page as the position on the ground changes.
The short answer: yes, the Annapurna Circuit trekking trail is open. When you read that a landslide has "closed the Annapurna", it almost always means a vehicle road was blocked, not that the walking trail is shut. Those are two different things, and mixing them up is the single biggest reason people cancel a trek they did not need to cancel. Below I explain the difference plainly, give you the honest position as of late September 2026, and tell you how we handle a bad-weather advisory in practice. If your dates are close and you want the position for your exact route, message me on WhatsApp and I will tell you straight.
Road closure or trail closure: what is the difference?
The Annapurna Circuit was, for decades, a pure walking trail. Over the last fifteen years a rough vehicle road has been pushed up both sides of it, up the Marsyangdi towards Manang and up the Kali Gandaki through Mustang. That road is useful for supplies and for getting to and from the trailheads, and it is what most news reports mean when they say a section is "blocked".
A landslide across that road stops jeeps and buses. It does not, on its own, stop a trekker on foot, because the walking route often runs on the older trail, on the far bank, or on a footpath the vehicles never used. So a headline that says the Beni to Jomsom road is blocked is telling you about the drive, not about your trek. The two can be true at the same time: the road can be shut while the trail beside it is perfectly walkable. When we plan around a road block, we are usually solving a transport problem, which day you drive and in what vehicle, not a trekking problem.
Is the Annapurna Circuit trail actually open right now?
As things stand in late September 2026, the trekking trails of the Annapurna region are reported open. The Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal stated on 11 September that the Manang and Mustang trails were fully operational, and the Annapurna region sits in a different river system, the Marsyangdi and the Kali Gandaki, from the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli valleys that flooded on the northern border in August. No flood damage to the Annapurna trail, its teahouses or its bridges has been reported.
The honest caveat is on the roads, not the trail. In Mustang, the Beni to Jomsom to Korala road has had fresh landslide blocks at a couple of points as of 26 September, which is a real problem for the drive into Jomsom but not a closure of the walking route. And higher up, the road that links Besisahar to Chame, the vehicle approach to Manang, has been hit repeatedly through this monsoon. I will not tell you a specific trail is open on a specific morning from a desk in Kathmandu, because that is exactly the kind of claim nobody should make from a distance. What I will tell you is that we recheck the route before every single departure, guide to guide and lodge to lodge, and if a section is genuinely not right we say so and reroute rather than walk you into it.
What does a weather advisory like "suspend trekking" actually mean?
Every so often the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology issues an advisory for a heavy-rain spell. It did exactly this on 23 September 2026, forecasting heavy rain, thunder and strong wind for 25 to 27 September across Gandaki and Lumbini provinces, telling anyone already high on a trail to descend to lower ground and telling the public to avoid long road journeys over those three days. Headlines shortened that to "Nepal tells tourists to suspend Himalayan treks", which sounds like the whole country shutting down.
It is not that. It is a 48 to 72 hour weather window, the same kind of forecast a good guide plans around every season. In practice we build buffer days into an itinerary, we hold a group at a lower village rather than push over a high pass in bad visibility, and we let the weather pass before we go up. A pulse oximeter, a sensible pace and the discipline to wait out a storm are ordinary trekking, not an emergency. The advisory is a reason to trek with someone who watches the forecast, not a reason to stay home.
Which Annapurna treks are we talking about?
The same logic covers the whole region. The Annapurna Circuit crosses the Thorong La at 5,416 metres, the highest point of the trek, between Manang and Mustang. The Annapurna Base Camp trek, Poon Hill and Mardi Himal all sit in the same western watershed, well away from the flood-hit valleys. If you want the region-by-region picture for the rest of the country as well, I keep a live status page: which Nepal treks are open after the floods.
Should I still book the Annapurna Circuit for this autumn?
Yes, with your eyes open about the season. October is the most reliable trekking month of the year in Nepal, clear and stable, which is why it is the busiest. The one honest note for this year is timing at the very start of the month. The monsoon normally withdraws around 2 October, but in each of the last four years it has run later, into the second week of October, and this year's late-September rain fits that pattern. So an early-October start is a genuine transition window rather than a guaranteed-clear one. If your dates are flexible, mid-October onwards is the safer bet; if they are fixed early, we plan for the tail of the monsoon and keep buffer days in hand. For a fuller month-by-month view, read our guide to the Annapurna Circuit in October.
How do you decide, on the day, whether it is safe to walk?
The same way we do in any season, only with more checking right now. Our guides and crew live and work in these valleys, and trail news moves guide to guide faster than any bulletin. We call the lodges on the route before departure, we read the DHM forecast, and we have a standing rule told to every client in writing: the guide has final say on safety, over the itinerary and over the client's wishes. That rule does not bend for a schedule. If a pass is not safe to cross on the planned morning, we wait, and if a section is genuinely closed we reroute. You are not on your own reading headlines from home; you have a person on the ground making the call.
Talk to a person
If you are booked on any Annapurna trek, or deciding on dates, message me on WhatsApp and I will give you the current position for your exact route and dates, and I will be honest if I would move a section. We are a licensed Kathmandu operator, registered in 2016, TAAN member 1586, with our own guides in these valleys. And if anyone tells you the whole of Nepal is closed, or that everything is perfectly untouched, be equally wary of both. The truth this autumn is more useful and more boring than either: most of the country is trekking a normal season, a couple of border valleys were hit hard, and a road block is not a trail closure.
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