15 Day Above the Clouds: Tilicho Lake and the Annapurna Circuit

Kathmandu meets you with incense, traffic, and the narrow lanes of Thamel. After you check in to your hotel at 1,350 m, your guide stops by to talk through the route and look over your gear. The evening is yours to rest before the road north.

The road leaves the city and follows the Trisuli, then the Marsyangdi, past terraced fields and bridges strung high above the water. Besisahar (760 m) is the start of the circuit and the last town of any size before the trail. It is a good place to settle anything left undone.

The road narrows into the Marsyangdi gorge, climbing past waterfalls and through forest into the Annapurna Conservation Area. Chame (2,670 m) is the district seat of Manang, quiet under Annapurna II, which shows itself on a clear morning.

The first full day of walking. The trail rises through pine and fir, crosses the river twice, and opens beneath the curved rock face of Paungda Danda, which lifts from the valley in a single sweep. By Pisang (3,200 m) the forest has thinned and the dry light of the rain shadow has taken over.

Today the trail divides. The high route over Ghyaru is the longer way, and the one worth taking: Annapurna II, III and IV and Gangapurna stand together across the valley, closer than at any other point on the circuit. The path comes down past the old monastery at Braga and into Manang (3,519 m), the largest village on the upper trail.

A day to let the altitude settle. The body adjusts best by climbing high and sleeping low, and the walk up to Ice Lake at 4,600 m is the most rewarding way to do it. In the afternoon, the Himalayan Rescue Association clinic holds its daily talk on altitude, worth an hour of your time.

A short walk west into a narrowing valley, with Tilicho Peak ahead for most of the way. Khangsar (3,734 m) is a small stone village, quieter than anywhere on the main circuit. There is little to do but rest and eat well, because the day to the lake begins before dawn.

The trail climbs onto a moraine ridge that asks for steady footing, levels at Tilicho Base Camp, then rises again to the lake at 4,919 m. Fed only by glacial melt and held in by old moraine walls, the water turns from turquoise to silver as the cloud moves across it. It is a long day, and a quiet one. You return the way you came to Khangsar.

An easier day after the lake. The trail drops into the valley, crosses it, and climbs gently to Yak Kharka (4,010 m), an open pasture below the south face of Annapurna III. The nights here are clear and cold, and the sky is worth staying up for.

A short stage that exists to set up the pass. Thorong Phedi (4,450 m) is a cluster of teahouses at the foot of the climb. If the day has gone well, you and your guide may carry on to High Camp to shorten the morning ahead. Either way, the evening is for sleep.

You start before first light, ahead of the wind that builds across the pass by mid-morning. The climb is slow in the thin air, and the reward is the line of prayer flags at Thorong La (5,416 m), the highest point of the trek, with the Annapurnas to the south and the Mustang plateau falling away to the north. A long descent brings you down to Muktinath (3,800 m), a pilgrimage site sacred to Hindus and Buddhists.

The trail follows the Kali Gandaki down through one of the deepest gorges on earth, set between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. You pass through Kagbeni, the old gateway to Upper Mustang, before the afternoon wind picks up for the final stretch into Jomsom (2,720 m).

A short morning flight lifts out of the gorge and past the snow peaks before landing in Pokhara (820 m), warm and green on the shore of Phewa Lake. After two weeks on the trail, the afternoon is for a hot shower and a good meal.

The highway runs east through the middle hills, following the rivers back toward the capital. It is a long drive and an easy one, with the evening free in Kathmandu.

The trek ends this morning with a transfer to the airport. If your flight allows, the stupa at Boudhanath or the temple at Pashupatinath are worth a last hour in the city.