Annapurna Circuit with Tilicho Lake

Why this itinerary is eleven days and not twenty-one

If you have read an older guidebook, the Annapurna Circuit is a three-week walk starting at Besisahar. That trek no longer exists in the form it describes. A road now runs up the Marsyangdi valley to Manang and down the far side from Muktinath, and the first four or five days of the classic route are spent walking on or beside it.

We start at Chame (2,710 m) by jeep. What you lose is roadside walking. What you keep is every part of the circuit that people actually remember: the Manang valley, Ice Lake, Tilicho, the pass, and the descent into Mustang.

Be wary of an operator selling you a 21-day circuit without explaining what you will be walking alongside for the first week. The honest version of this trek in 2026 is between ten and fourteen days.

Who this trek suits

You need to be able to walk six to eight hours on consecutive days, and you need eleven days you can commit to without a fixed flight at the end. There is no technical ground — no rope, no crampons, no climbing.

What you cannot prepare for is altitude. This itinerary sleeps above 3,500 m from day three onward and crosses 5,416 m on day ten. Fitness does not predict how you handle that, which is why the acclimatisation days are not optional extras.

You will probably enjoy this if	Consider something shorter if
You have trekked multi-day before, at any altitude	This is your first multi-day walk anywhere
You want a high pass rather than an out-and-back	You have fewer than ten clear days
You are comfortable with basic lodges and cold nights	You need a hot shower every night
You can add a buffer day at the end	Your international flight is fixed and tight

If the second column describes you, Poon Hill or Mardi Himal give you the Annapurnas in four days without the altitude commitment.

The acclimatisation plan, and why it is shaped this way

Three of the eleven days exist for acclimatisation rather than distance, and they are the reason people finish this trek.

Day 4 in Manang (3,519 m) is a rest day with a short walk. Sleeping height does not change. This single day does more for your chances on the pass than any training you did at home.

Day 5 climbs Ice Lake to around 4,600 m and comes back down to sleep at 3,519 m. Climb high, sleep low — the most effective acclimatisation tool available without drugs, and the day most cheap itineraries cut.

Day 7 is Tilicho, up to 4,919 m and back down to Shree Kharka. Same principle, higher.

By the time you reach Thorong High Camp on day nine you have already been above 4,900 m twice and slept progressively higher. That is the plan working.

What we do if it is not working

Your guide carries a pulse oximeter and will check you morning and evening above 4,000 m. If you develop symptoms of acute mountain sickness that do not resolve with a rest day, we descend. Not negotiable, and not refundable against the mountain — but our guides are instructed that turning a client around is the correct decision, never a failure.

Tilicho: the part that needs honest discussion

Tilicho Lake sits at 4,919 m and is one of the highest lakes of its size anywhere. It is also reached by a traverse across a notoriously loose landslide section between Khangsar and Tilicho Base Camp — an eroding slope of scree and rock that shifts, and where rockfall is a genuine hazard rather than a theoretical one.

We cross it early, before the sun loosens the slope, and we do not cross it at all after heavy rain or fresh snow. If conditions are wrong on the day, we skip Tilicho and use the extra time at Manang. That decision is made on the ground by the guide, not in an office in advance, and it is one of the questions worth asking any operator you are comparing us with.

Thorong La

The pass is crossed from Thorong High Camp (around 4,850 m) starting between 4 and 5 am. The early start is partly for snow conditions and partly because the wind on the pass rises predictably through the morning.

It is a long day — four to six hours up, then a descent of more than 1,600 m to Muktinath on the far side, which is harder on knees than the climb is on lungs. Trekking poles matter more here than anywhere else on the route.

The pass can close after heavy snowfall. If it does, the only alternative is to retrace down the Marsyangdi, which is why we ask you to keep a spare day at the end of the trip.

Permits, and what they cost

Two are required for this route:

• ACAP — Annapurna Conservation Area Project entry permit
• TIMS — Trekkers' Information Management System card

Both are included in the package price and we arrange them in Pokhara or Kathmandu. You need your passport and passport photographs. Checkpoints at Chame, Manang and Jomsom will ask for both, and the Manang checkpoint records your details for search and rescue purposes.

The kit that decides how the pass day goes

Most of what you read about packing for this trek is a list. The useful version is much shorter, because on the Thorong La morning only four things change the outcome.

Item	Why it decides the day
Sleeping bag to -10°C or lower	A sleepless night at High Camp is the most common reason people turn back
Insulated gloves plus thin liners	You cannot manage zips, poles or a camera in thick gloves alone, and bare hands at -15°C is a matter of minutes
Windproof shell, top and bottom	The pass is a wind funnel; still air at High Camp says nothing about conditions 500 m higher
Trekking poles	For the 1,600 m descent afterwards, not the climb

Boots matter too, but they matter from day one and you should arrive with them broken in. Buying boots in Kathmandu the day before an eleven-day trek is the single most reliable way to ruin it.

Renting in Pokhara or Kathmandu

Down jackets and sleeping bags are worth renting rather than flying with — shops in both cities rent by the day at modest rates and the quality is adequate, though sizing for taller trekkers is limited. Inspect the zip on any bag before you accept it.

What we would not rent: boots, gloves and waterproofs. Fit and condition matter too much on those, and the rental stock sees hard use.

What a day actually looks like

Breakfast between 7 and 8. Walking by 8. Three to four hours to a lunch stop, an hour there while food is cooked to order, then two to three hours to the night's lodge, arriving mid-afternoon. Tea, a wash if there is hot water, dinner around 6.30, and most people are asleep by 9.

Lodges are simple: a twin room with wooden walls and no heating, a shared bathroom, and a dining room with a stove that is lit in the evening. Above Manang the rooms get colder and the menus shorter. Bring a sleeping bag rated to at least -10°C.

Where this trek goes

• Muktinath & Jomsom — A temple at 3,800 m held sacred by Hindus and Buddhists alike, in the arid Kali Gandaki valley
• Pokhara — A lakeside town at 820 m with the Annapurnas 30 km away

Related activities: Trekking in Nepal.

Or compare every trip we run: all trekking and tour packages.