Most people who walk in the Annapurna region head for the same two or three places, and Khopra Danda is the ridge that rewards everyone who does not. It is a high shoulder of grassland with a wall of giants on one side and a sacred lake up above it, and it belongs to the villages below rather than to any big trekking company. If you have not heard of it, that is rather the point.
Where is Khopra Danda?
Khopra Danda, also written Khopra Ridge, sits at about 3,660 metres (12,008 feet) in Myagdi District, in Gandaki Province, inside the Annapurna Conservation Area. "Danda" is the Nepali word for a ridge or a hill spur, and that is exactly what it is: a long open shoulder above the Kali Gandaki country, west of the well-known Ghorepani and Poon Hill trail and reached from villages like Dobato and Swanta rather than from the main circuit. It is not a village in the way Ghandruk is. It is a cluster of lodges on a high grazing ridge, built where the view is.
And what a view. The ridge looks straight across at Dhaulagiri (8,167 metres), the seventh-highest mountain on earth, with Annapurna South (7,219 metres), Nilgiri and Hiunchuli filling the rest of the skyline. Because you are out on a spur rather than down in a valley, the mountains stand up in front of you almost from your lodge door, which is not something the busier trails can offer.
What is the lake above Khopra?
The reason many people come all the way up here is Khayer Lake, a glacial lake at roughly 4,660 metres (15,289 feet) tucked beneath the south face of Annapurna I. It is a day walk up from the ridge and back, and it is a genuine pilgrimage site, not just a viewpoint. Beside the lake stands the Khayer Baraha shrine, dedicated to Baraha, the boar form of Vishnu, and every year around the Janai Purnima full moon in the monsoon, Hindu pilgrims climb up to bathe in the water, which they hold to be purifying. So the lake carries a meaning for Nepalis that has nothing to do with trekking, and it is worth knowing that before you go, so you treat the place as the shrine it is.
The walk to the lake and back is the hardest day of this trek and the highest point you reach. It is long, it is high, and the weather turns quickly up there, so it is a day to start early and to walk at your guide's pace, not your own.
Why is Khopra worth the extra days?
Two reasons, and they are honest ones. The first is quiet. The main Annapurna trails carry a lot of feet in October; Khopra carries very few, so you get the same range of mountains with a fraction of the crowd. The second is who you are staying with. The lodges on the Khopra ridge are community-run, part of a local trail set up to send income to the villages and their schools rather than to outside operators. They are simple by design, with limited menus and shared bathrooms in places, and that simplicity is the character of the trek, not a shortcoming. When you sleep and eat here, the money stays in the hills you are walking through.
It does mean coming prepared. You are above the tree line on an exposed ridge, so nights are cold and clear and there is little shelter from weather. None of that is a hardship if you arrive expecting it, and a good guide plans each day around the light and the cold.
How high is Khopra, and does altitude matter here?
The ridge itself, at about 3,660 metres, is not extreme, but the day walk to Khayer Lake takes you to roughly 4,660 metres and back, which is a real gain in a single day. That is enough to matter. The sensible way to walk this trek is to reach the ridge with a night or two already spent climbing gently on the way in, to drink well and eat well at the lodge, and to treat the lake day as the serious one it is. On our treks the guide carries a pulse oximeter and checks your oxygen up high, and the plan bends to how you are actually doing. If you want the fuller picture of how height is managed on a Nepal trek, we set it out plainly in our guide to acclimatisation on Nepal treks.
When does the trek go through Khopra Danda?
Khopra sits on its own short route in the southern Annapurna foothills, so it is not a stop on the classic circuit but a destination in its own right. On our Khopra Danda trek you climb to the ridge from Dobato, spend a full day walking up to Khayer Lake and back, and then descend to Swanta and on out through the Ghorepani country. It pairs naturally with the Poon Hill trail for anyone who wants the famous sunrise as well as the quiet ridge, and it makes a strong choice for a second Annapurna trek once you have already done Annapurna Base Camp and want the mountains without the traffic.
As with all the Annapurna trails, the best months are October and November for clear, stable weather, and March to May for spring, when the rhododendrons are out on the lower ridges.
The short version
Khopra Danda is a community-run ridge at about 3,660 metres with a front-row wall of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna South, and above it, at roughly 4,660 metres, the sacred Khayer Lake and its Baraha shrine, a real pilgrimage place. It is quieter than the famous trails, it keeps your money in the villages that host you, and its one high day deserves respect. If you want the big Annapurna mountains without the big Annapurna crowds, this is the ridge to walk.
Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586.
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