Trekking in the Manaslu Region is a unique and culturally rich journey that takes you around Mount Manaslu (8,163m), the eighth-highest mountain in the world. The famous Manaslu Circuit Trek is known for its stunning views of the high Larkya La Pass (5,106m), its beautiful scenery, and its rich Tibetan Buddhist culture in settlements like Samagaon and Samdo. This trek is in a protected region, so it's not as crowded as other paths in Nepal. To do it responsibly, you'll need special Manaslu Conservation Region permits and professional guides. It's one of the last real frontiers in the Himalayas.
Why choose the Manaslu Circuit Trek?
When you choose the Manaslu Circuit Trek, you get a full Himalayan adventure with fewer people, a unique cultural encounter, and a thrilling high-pass crossing. This 12- to 21-day circuit takes you around the huge Manaslu mountain and shows you some amazing scenery, from subtropical lowlands and rushing river gorges to high-altitude moonscapes. The restricted area classification protects traditions in areas influenced by Tibet and keeps tourists from having too much of an effect. Our approved packages take care of all the complicated paperwork for trekking permits, give professional local guides who are knowledgeable in the culture of the area, and ensure your safety by carefully planning your acclimatisation schedules for the challenging Larkya La ascent.
Best Time for Manaslu Trekking: A Seasonal Guide
The best times to trek Manaslu are in the spring before the monsoon (April to May) and in the fall after the monsoon (October to November). October has the best weather: beautiful skies, dry paths, and safe travel over Larkya La Pass. The weather is warmer in late April and May, the rhododendrons blossom, and the days are longer. However, there may be clouds in the afternoon. Winter (December to March) is difficult since there is a lot of snow on the pass, it is very cold, and there aren't many tea houses open. Because of landslide concerns, swelling rivers, and leeches, the trek is not safe during the monsoon (June to September). Manaslu has a tighter optimum window than other treks because it goes over a high-altitude pass.
Natural and cultural highlights
The Manaslu walk is a deep cultural tour through the old Nubri and Tsum Valley areas, which were profoundly impacted by Tibetan Buddhism. Some of the best things to do include visiting the medieval-style stone settlements of Lho and Samagaon, the famous Pungyen Gompa monastery at the base of Manaslu's south face, and seeing how people in the Himalayas live in ways that haven't changed much over time. The optional Tsum Valley extension shows you a secret "Beyul" (holy valley) with its dialects, old monasteries, and a very spiritual environment. The dramatic Larkya La Pass crossing offers stunning views of the Manaslu and Annapurna mountains. The descent through Bhimtang takes you through thick rhododendron and pine woods.
why our family knows this region
the manaslu circuit follows the budhi gandaki river, which is the border between gorkha and dhading. these are the two districts our family has called home for longer than i can put a confident number on. the elders in our family say four hundred years on my father's side in dhading, and more than five hundred years on my mother's side in gorkha. before that, the story i was told growing up is that we came from jumla in the far west, and before that, somewhere around fourteen hundred years ago, from india. these are oral histories that have been passed down from the old people in the family, not things i can show you on a piece of paper. but they are the truth as we have always known it, and they explain why these mountains have never felt like a place we visit. they are simply where we are from.
manaslu only opened to international trekkers in 1991. before that the area was closed to outsiders. my grandfather hari lal simkhada was not a trekking guide on the manaslu circuit, because there was no manaslu circuit then, and there was no proper trekking industry in nepal at all. what he was, was the kind of local man that foreigners came looking for when they needed someone who actually knew how things worked on the ground. when international expeditions arrived in kathmandu in those years they needed porters, they needed equipment, they needed someone who understood the villages and the weather and the trails, and they needed a person they could trust to arrange all of that for them. my grandfather was that person. he arranged the logistics, he found the porters, he sourced the materials, and he made the introductions. he was a local villager from saldum in dhading who had grown up walking these hills, and he knew them the way you know the streets of the town you were born in.
my father, ganesh prasad simkhada, came up through the same world but at a moment when nepal was finally building a proper tourism industry around it. he served as general secretary of the nepal mountaineering association from 2005 through 2008, and then on the board of executive directors of the nepal tourism board from 2009 to 2011. through those roles he was instrumental in opening new trekking regions across the country and in training the first generations of nepali mountaineering guides to international standards through government programmes. by the time it was our turn, in 2016, when my wife shamjhana and i co-founded the everest holiday, we were not starting a trekking company from scratch. we were continuing a family relationship with these mountains that already went back two generations in the visible record and many more in the family memory.
when you trek the manaslu circuit with us today, your guide is not a stranger from kathmandu reading from a script. our team knows the lodges by name. we know which families run which teahouses. we have phone numbers in our pockets for people in samdo and lho and namrung who can help in an emergency the same way they would help a relative passing through. when we ask about your dietary needs the answer is not coming from a manual, it is coming from sitting in those kitchens ourselves and knowing what is actually possible at between three thousand and four thousand metres in november. the saldum village where my grandfather lived is where our charity, the nagarjun learning center, runs its flagship school today. seventy children get a free education and a hot meal there every school day, and ten percent of every booking we take helps keep that school running.
this is not a marketing line we wrote for the website. it is a fact about how our family fits into the manaslu region, and it is the single biggest reason we believe we can run a manaslu trek better than a company that has no roots in either of these districts.
