The first eight-thousander and a deadly one
Annapurna I Main rises to 8,091 m (26,545 ft) and is the tenth-highest mountain on Earth. In 1950 it became the first summit above 8,000 m reached by climbers, and for the next three years it was the highest summit ever climbed, although men had already gone higher on Everest in the 1920s without reaching a top. The massif around it is 55 km long, bounded by the Kali Gandaki gorge in the west, the Marsyangdi River in the north and east and the Pokhara valley in the south; it carries one peak over 8,000 m, thirteen over 7,000 m and sixteen more over 6,000 m.
Annapurna is also known for danger. For decades it had the worst ratio of deaths to summits among the principal eight-thousanders; by January 2022 there had been 365 ascents and 72 deaths, a rate of just under 20 per cent. Success has grown in recent years: by February 2025, 559 people had reached the summit and 75 had died, a fatality rate of about 13%. Avalanches, unpredictable weather and the steep, committing routes remain the main threats. Nepal's Department of Tourism counts 468 summiteers from its permits by December 2025; the figures differ because of how ascents are recorded.
Where it is and how to get there
Annapurna lies in Gandaki Province, north of Pokhara, which is reached by road or a short flight from Kathmandu. The entire massif lies in the Annapurna Conservation Area (7,629 km²), launched in 1986 as Nepal's first conservation area. It is home to more than 100,000 people of Gurung, Magar, Thakali, Manangi and other communities, has over 1,000 lodges and teashops and attracts a majority of Nepal's trekkers. Its management relies on entry fees paid by visitors rather than on government funding.
Trailheads for the Sanctuary are Phedi and Nayapul, about 20 minutes and two hours by road from Pokhara. The Circuit traditionally starts at Besisahar, six to eight hours by bus from Kathmandu, and ends in the Kali Gandaki valley at Jomsom, which has flights to Pokhara, or continues on foot over Ghorepani to Nayapul.
The Annapurna Sanctuary (Base Camp) trek
The Sanctuary is an oval glacial basin above 4,000 m, ringed by Annapurna I, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Gangapurna and the sacred Machhapuchhre. Its only entrance is the narrow gorge of the Modi Khola, and the walls are so high that the basin receives only about seven hours of sunlight a day even in midsummer. A typical route from Phedi (1,130 m) climbs to Dhampus (1,650 m) and Landruk (1,640 m), drops to New Bridge, climbs the long stone staircases to Jhinu Danda (1,780 m), where hot springs lie by the river, and reaches Chomrong (2,170 m). Beyond Chomrong a single trail runs through bamboo and rhododendron forest via Sinuwa (2,360 m), Bamboo (2,310 m), Dobhan (2,600 m), Himalaya (2,920 m) and Deurali (3,200 m) to Machhapuchhre Base Camp (3,700 m) and finally Annapurna Base Camp (about 4,130 m), facing the south face.
The trek takes five to seven days from Pokhara and back and covers roughly 75–80 km. It is easily combined with Poon Hill (3,210 m) above Ghorepani, a famous sunrise viewpoint over Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. Until recently the Gurung people forbade meat and eggs in the Sanctuary, which they held sacred; no outsider entered it until Jimmy Roberts in 1956. Machhapuchhre was climbed in 1957 to within 50 m of the top and has been closed to climbers ever since.
The Annapurna Circuit
The Circuit runs anticlockwise from Besisahar (760 m) up the Marsyangdi valley through Hindu rice-terrace villages, Chame (2,710 m) and Pisang to Manang (3,540 m), where most trekkers spend at least one acclimatisation day and can attend the daily altitude talk at the Himalayan Rescue Association aid post. Side trips lead to Ice Lake (4,620 m) and to Tilicho Lake (about 4,920 m), one of the highest lakes in the world. Then come Yak Kharka (4,050 m), Thorong Phedi (about 4,450–4,540 m) or High Camp (about 4,900 m) and, before dawn, the crossing of the Thorong La (5,416 m), followed by a descent of about 1,600 m to Muktinath (3,800 m), a pilgrimage site sacred to Hindus and Buddhists. The route continues down the Kali Gandaki, often called the world's deepest gorge, between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, through Kagbeni, Jomsom (2,720 m) and Marpha.
The full route is 160–230 km long, depending on how much of it is walked, and takes about two to three weeks. The area was opened to foreign trekkers in 1977. Roads now reach Manang and Muktinath and have replaced much of the old trail; the waymarked Natural Annapurna Trekking Trails (NATT) avoid many road sections. Crossing the pass from west to east is much harder and is not recommended, because it allows no gradual acclimatisation.
Climbing Annapurna I
The normal route is the north face, the line of 1950 with later variations such as the Dutch Rib. The approach goes from Pokhara and Beni up the Kali Gandaki to Lete and then east through the Miristi Khola gorge to base camp. Above it the route climbs avalanche-prone glacier slopes past an ice cliff that the 1950 team called the "Sickle". The south face, a wall of rock and ice about 3,000 m high above the Sanctuary, was first climbed in 1970 by Don Whillans and Dougal Haston on an expedition led by Chris Bonington; Ian Clough was killed by a falling serac on the descent. In October 2013 the Swiss Ueli Steck reported a solo ascent of the face in 28 hours from base camp and back, a claim that some have doubted.
Permits, costs and rules
Trekkers need the Annapurna Conservation Area permit (NPR 3,000 for foreigners) and a TIMS card (NPR 2,000 for non-SAARC nationals), with checkpoints at Bhulbhule, Bahundanda, Jagat, Koto and Birethanti among others. Since 31 March 2023 the Nepal Tourism Board lists the Circuit, the Sanctuary (Poon Hill–ABC) and the Mardi Himal trek among routes where a licensed guide is mandatory and the TIMS card is issued through a registered agency; the rule is enforced more strictly than at first. Side valleys such as Nar–Phu need an additional restricted-area permit.
For climbers, the Department of Tourism's 2026 royalty for a foreigner on Annapurna I is US$3,000 in spring, US$1,500 in autumn and US$750 in winter or summer, plus a US$3,000 garbage deposit and a liaison officer. In spring 2025, six teams with 66 climbers held permits.
When to go and weather
The south side has a typical monsoon climate: rain from June or July to the end of September, then stable weather until about mid-January. The best trekking months are October–November and March–May. In winter storms can fill the Sanctuary with snow, sometimes burying lodges, and snow may lie above Deurali from mid-November; several avalanche paths cross the trail there. The northern side of the Circuit lies in a rain shadow and receives less than a tenth of the rain of the south, so parts of it can be walked even in the monsoon. The Thorong La is safest from March to May and September to November; from December to March it is often snowbound. Climbers attempt Annapurna mainly in spring.
Water on the trek
On the Sanctuary trek there are official safe drinking water stations at Landruk, Ghandruk, Jhinu and Chomrong. Beyond Chomrong single-use plastic bottles may not be sold, so carry at least two reusable bottles; lodges sell boiled or reverse-osmosis water (around NPR 130 per litre on the Sanctuary trail) and give untreated water free, which must be purified. On the Circuit bottled water and hot drinks are sold throughout, but most lodges' tap water is for washing; many trekkers treat local water with tablets or UV filters to cut plastic waste. On the Thorong La day carry two litres and something warm, as there is little on the pass apart from a seasonal tea stall.
Mobile coverage and internet
The Annapurna region is among the better-connected trekking areas in Nepal. Nepal Telecom SIM cards are generally considered to have the best coverage on the Annapurna routes, and Wi-Fi is available in lodges in Jomsom and Muktinath and in many villages on both treks, usually for a fee, as is charging. Coverage fails in deep sections of the gorges and on the Thorong La, and in the 2014 blizzard the mobile network in Manang district went down. In an emergency dial 1144 (Tourist Police) or 100 (Police); the Himalayan Rescue Association aid post in Manang (3,550 m) is staffed by volunteer doctors in spring and autumn.
Altitude, dangers and safety
Trekkers face altitude sickness on the Circuit, above all on the climb from Manang to the Thorong La; the rescue association recommends several nights between arriving in Manang and crossing the pass. Weather can turn fast: in October 2014 the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud brought a blizzard that killed at least 43 people around the Thorong La, Nepal's worst trekking disaster, and in late October 2025 heavy snow hit Annapurna Base Camp and nearby routes and local authorities halted treks. In the Sanctuary, watch for avalanches and rockfall between Deurali and Machhapuchhre Base Camp in winter and spring.
On the mountain itself many of the world's best climbers have died, among them Ian Clough (1970), Alex MacIntyre (1982), Pierre Béghin (1992), Anatoli Boukreev, killed by an avalanche on 25 December 1997, the Spaniard Iñaki Ochoa (2008), the Korean Park Young-seok (2011) and the Finn Samuli Mansikka (2015).
History and name
The name joins the Sanskrit words anna ("food") and purna ("filled"): Annapurna is the goddess of food and nourishment, said to live on the mountain, and the streams from its slopes water the fields below. In 1950, soon after Nepal opened to foreign mountaineers, a French team led by Maurice Herzog, with Louis Lachenal, Lionel Terray, Gaston Rébuffat, Jean Couzy, Marcel Schatz, the doctor Jacques Oudot and the filmmaker Marcel Ichac, set out to climb Dhaulagiri or Annapurna. Their maps were wrong, and they spent weeks just finding a way to the mountain before reaching the north face through the Miristi Khola gorge. With the monsoon expected within days, Herzog and Lachenal left their top camp above the Sickle and reached the summit at about 14:00 on 3 June. On the descent they lost their way in a storm, spent a night in a crevasse with Terray and Rébuffat, who had come up to help and went snow-blind, and were carried down by Sherpas. During the retreat Oudot amputated all of Lachenal's toes and Herzog's fingers and toes. Herzog told the story in his book Annapurna (1951).
Later milestones include the first women, the American Vera Komarkova and Irene Miller with two Sherpas, on 15 October 1978, during an expedition on which two other women died; the first winter ascent by Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer on 3 February 1987; and on 16 April 2021 the first ascent by a team of Nepali women.
Interesting facts
- Machhapuchhre, the "fish tail" peak at the entrance to the Sanctuary, is sacred and closed to climbing; the 1957 team stopped 50 m below its top.
- About two-thirds of all trekkers in Nepal visit the Annapurna region.
- Rhododendron forests around Ghorepani are among the largest in the world.
- Muktinath temple has 108 water spouts and a natural gas flame that burns continuously.
FAQ
How high is Annapurna I? 8,091 m (26,545 ft), the tenth-highest mountain on Earth and the first eight-thousander ever climbed.
How long is the Annapurna Base Camp trek? Five to seven days from Pokhara and back, roughly 75–80 km, reaching about 4,130 m.
How long is the Annapurna Circuit? About two to three weeks for 160–230 km, depending on how much is walked and how many side trips you take; the high point is the Thorong La at 5,416 m.
How difficult is it? The Sanctuary trek is moderate, with long stone staircases. The Circuit is longer and higher and demands careful acclimatisation. Climbing Annapurna I is one of the most dangerous undertakings in the Himalayas.
What permits do I need? The ACAP permit (NPR 3,000 for foreigners) and a TIMS card (NPR 2,000), arranged through a registered agency with a licensed guide, which has been mandatory on these routes since 2023.
Is there water on the trek? Yes. The Sanctuary trail has safe drinking water stations at Landruk, Ghandruk, Jhinu and Chomrong, and plastic bottles are not sold beyond Chomrong; bring reusable bottles and purification.
Is there mobile coverage? On much of both treks, especially with Nepal Telecom, and many lodges sell Wi-Fi; expect gaps in gorges and on the Thorong La. Emergency numbers are 1144 and 100.
When is the best time to go? October–November and March–May for trekking; spring for climbing.