Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit – Day 10 of 15: Manang to Tilicho Base Camp
Today, the numbering of the trek becomes a minor mountain riddle. We’ve just completed Nar Phu over 9 days which finished yesterday. Depending on your own starting point, today is either Day 10 of the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit – the combined road free Nar Phu and Annapurna Circuit route – or Day 4 of a standard Annapurna Circuit started from Chame. For Gautam and me, coming off the Kang La with nine days of high-altitude acclimatization already in our legs, one night in Manang was enough. We are ready for the seven-hour push directly to Tilicho Base Camp at 4,150m.
If you are joining the circuit here after the standard two nights in Manang, most experienced trekking guides suggest breaking the journey with a night in Khangsar. That is good advice. But for those coming off the Nar Phu trek, the push to Base Camp in a single day is really the next step as acclimatization is already done. What’s next is not an altitude problem. It is a terrain problem. Something that really deserves ones full attention.
A note for those whose trekking research begins and ends on Facebook groups: this section is not a walk in the park. The trail from Khangsar to Tilicho Base Camp contains some of the most geologically volatile terrain in the entire Annapurna region. Please take it seriously.
For those only doing the Annapurna Circuit: trekking in from Chame, a night in Pisang, spend two nights in Manang, and if you feel any trace of altitude sickness symptoms as you move up, descend immediately to Khangsar. No lake view is worth ignoring that signal.
25 people have died in the past year from acclimatization issues in the Annapurna region – so please do take it seriously
The Road to Khangsar: The Last of the Dust
The day began with the frustration that has become the defining feature of today’s Annapurna Circuit. The walk from Manang to Khangsar shares part of the road with motorcycles and jeeps. The dust rises in slow clouds behind every vehicle. The good news is that there are not that many vehicles. Still, after 9 days in the road-free silence of Nar Phu, it is a jarring return. But, it’s nowhere near a motorway.
Even the short road section has its rewards if you look up rather than down. The views along the Marsyangdi Valley are stunning: high snow peaks framing the trail on both sides, and as one approaches Khangsar, Gangapurna Lake appears below the trail to the right. The lake sits at around 3,540m, fed by the Gangapurna Glacier directly above it. The water is a milky glacial blue, entirely different in character from the turquoise of Tilicho which we’ll see later – a colder looking, more industrial look, the product of active glacial melt rather than still high-altitude water of Tilicho. Still, it’s worth stopping to look at properly. Most trekkers walk past it in a hurry to reach there lodge. It’s a popular side trek if you spend two nights in Manang, which I’ve done before. And I do recommend it as a side trek to help with acclimatization if you are on the original circuit.
Once you cross the suspension bridge toward Khangsar, the modern world begins to fall away. The trail narrows, the dust settles, and the character of the route shifts back into high alpine mountains. And then, after Khangsar, comes the opposite of road in every possible sense. It’s time to pay attention!
The Landslide Area: Navigating the Scree
The section from Khangsar to Tilicho Base Camp requires attention. At MissingTrekker.com, the volume of accounts from “easy trail” incidents on this section is sobering. The terrain is scree-strewn and in constant, slow motion. There are steep scree slopes both above and below the trail. Mountain goats on the slopes overhead dislodge rocks without warning. This is not a section to rush, or to zone out on, or to attempt in poor visibility. If this was in Europe, there would be railings, and mandatory head gear.
Gautam kept his eyes on the slopes above us for the entire crossing. There is a strange quality to being on an active scree slope that is difficult to describe until you are standing in the middle of one. You look up and see hundreds of metres of loose stone above you. You look down and see hundreds of metres of it below you. The trail exists somewhere between the two, and there is very little to grab if something goes wrong. Three points of contact with trekking poles helps. Slow and steady!
The most reliable window to cross is early in the morning, before the temperature rises and the freeze-thaw cycle loosens debris on the upper slopes. We crossed early. We moved steadily. We did not stop in exposed sections. There were other trekkers coming both ways. We stopped for everyone. They might not do the same. Mind yourself.
The 2014 Annapurna disaster, in which over 40 trekkers lost their lives during an unseasonable snowstorm, hit this region directly. Landslides happen. They rarely make international headlines. So stay vigilant. Before one leaves Khangsar, ask the lodge owners about current conditions ahead. They are the most reliable sources of information on the current trail status, and they will tell you straight. If the answer is anything other than clear, do not proceed. Again, do not fall prey to Facebook groups for information. What you need are actual people who care. You’ll find them at a lodge not online.
Seasonal Caution
If you are trekking this section in the monsoon or winter months, have a deeper conversation with Khangsar lodge owners – it really is the decision point for the entire day and possibly your life. Rain destabilizes the scree. Snow obscures the trail markings. Cloud removes your ability to monitor the slopes above you. Any of these conditions alone warrants serious consideration. If there is any danger turn around. Never veer off the marked trail to climb the scree directly, do not shout or make loud noises, and never override a trekking guide’s weather warning with personal optimism. The mountain does not care.
Again, ignore the online pundits, YouTubers etc. This section is a landslide area. You must listen to the lodge owners in Khangsar and heed their advice. Not some random video taken at a different time of the year, and edited to get likes or subscribers. There is no substitute for asking locals, they know best about what’s happening in the here and now.
Sorry for repeating about altitude sickness and landslides so much but so many don’t pay attention hence there are fatalities
Arrival at Tilicho Base Camp (4,150m)
We reached Tilicho Base Camp in roughly seven hours. Facilities at this altitude are just about working rather than comfortable like back at Manang. There are solar-powered showers that produce water of questionable warmth, Wi-Fi that works intermittently, and rooms that are effectively wooden boxes with gaps in the planks wide enough to feel the night air move through them. It is also consistently windy here.
There were others at our lodge, and I opted to choose my own room second from the end of the row. Nobody beside me (noise), and not the end where the wind can blow (cold).
As clouds rolled over the peaks in the late afternoon, the temperature inside the room dropped. This is Tilicho Base Camp: raw, cold, and exposed in a way that no amount of reading prepares you for. But we are here for the lake, and tomorrow morning we climb to its shore. The bad news? Late trekkers. In the room beside me there’s noise from other trekkers as they crash into it. Ear plugs for the first time are needed.
It’s not negativity, just reality. We’ll be up earlier than they will be, and they will be woken too. Tilicho at dawn is one of the reasons for trekking the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit. From Nar Phu’s culture, remote valley’s and isolation to Tilicho Base Camps raw trekking environment. Everything is as it should be for trekking in Nepal!
For full trail conditions, seasonal warnings, and the complete Road Free Annapurna Circuit itinerary, see my road free Annapurna Circuit guide, and Trekking in Nepal guidebook.
Next: Day 11 – Tilicho Lake: The highest turquoise lake in the world and why the Greater Annapurna Circuit cannot exist without it.
Get the Only Guidebooks Worth Reading
Most guidebooks are years out of date or filled with paid placements. My books provide a complete strategy for Nepal with 100% independent reviews. Get the exact costs for every meal, bed, transport, plus the world’s only vetted, scam-free trekking agency list.
 Trekking in Nepal |
 Nepal Guidebook |