The Annapurna Sanctuary is a bowl. Every route in funnels through one narrow gorge, the Modi Khola, and at the top the walls open into a ring of peaks over 6,000 and 7,000 metres with Annapurna I (8,091 m) at its head. Walking in feels less like climbing a mountain and more like entering a room.
What follows is not an itinerary. It is what changes as you go, written from what our guides notice and what guests tell us at the end. The exact days on our Annapurna Base Camp trek can shift with your fitness and the weather, but this sequence does not.
Around 1,700–2,200 m: villages, terraces, and the stairs
Most trips now drive from Pokhara to the trailhead near Jhinu or Siwai, which cuts a day off the old walk-in. Jhinu has hot springs down by the river, a twenty-minute descent from the lodges. Go in the afternoon. You will want them again on the way out.
Then comes Chhomrong.
Chhomrong is a Gurung village built on a steep spur, and the trail through it is stone stairs: up to the top of the village, then down, a long way down, to the suspension bridge over the Chhomrong Khola, then up again toward Sinuwa. On the way in, the descent is what hurts. On the way out, it is the climb back up through Chhomrong, at the end of a long day, with everything already tired. Ask anyone who has done ABC which part they remember in their thighs. It is this.
Chhomrong is also where Machhapuchhre first stops being a distant shape and becomes the thing you look at. Its fishtail summit sits right across the valley, lit pink at sunset if you are lucky.
Around 2,300–2,900 m: the gorge closes in
From Sinuwa through Bamboo, Dovan and Himalaya, you are in the gorge. Bamboo thickets, rhododendron and oak, the river loud below, waterfalls coming off the cliffs on the other side. The sun reaches the trail late and leaves early. Lodges here are simpler and colder, with fewer rooms, and in peak season the guides earn their keep making sure you have a bed.
The food changes too. Above the Chhomrong area, by local custom the Sanctuary is treated as sacred ground, and you will not find meat on lodge menus. Dal bhat, potatoes, noodles, eggs, and tea in quantity. Nobody goes hungry.
Prices rise with every stop, because everything up here came up on someone’s back.
Around 3,200 m: Deurali, and the avalanche question
Deurali sits where the forest thins out and the valley gets narrow and open at the same time. This is the stretch we want every trekker to take seriously.
Between roughly Himalaya and Machhapuchhre Base Camp, the trail runs beneath steep slopes on the west side of the gorge. After heavy snowfall, avalanches come down those slopes and across the path. In January 2020 an avalanche near Deurali swept away a group of Korean trekkers and their Nepali guides, and the search for them went on for months. It was not the first incident on this section and it will not be the last.
The risk is highest in winter and early spring, roughly late December to April, especially in the days after a big storm. Monsoon brings its own trouble with landslides lower down. Here is what we do, and what we would ask any trekker to do:
- Listen to lodge owners and local authorities. If they say the trail is closed or unsafe, it is.
- Cross the exposed section early in the morning, before the sun warms the slopes, and do not stop to rest under them.
- Build a spare day into your plan so that waiting out bad conditions does not feel like a loss.
- If you are walking in winter, be prepared to turn around below MBC. The trek is still beautiful from Deurali.
Most autumn and spring days the path is quiet and safe. The point is to know which days are not.
3,700 m: Machhapuchhre Base Camp
You come out of the gorge and suddenly there is space. MBC is a handful of lodges on open ground below Machhapuchhre (6,993 m), a mountain that has never been officially climbed. A British team in 1957 turned back some fifty metres below the top, and the peak has been closed to climbing since, out of respect for its place in local belief. Seen from its base, the fishtail is gone and it becomes a sheer wall that fills the sky.
This is also where altitude starts to matter. Headaches, poor sleep, a heavier walk. Drink more than you think you need, walk slowly, and tell your guide honestly how you feel. Pride causes more trouble up here than weakness does.
4,130 m: Annapurna Base Camp
The last stretch from MBC is about two hours of gentle climbing, often on snow in spring. Then you are inside the ring. Annapurna I’s south face, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Gangapurna and the rest, close enough that you hear ice breaking off in the afternoons. There are memorial prayer flags for climbers who died on Annapurna. The lodges are cold. Your water bottle may freeze.
The morning is the reason. Walk a few minutes from the lodges toward the moraine before sunrise, sit down, and watch the light come down the south face. Most guests stay quiet longer than they expect to.
What people get wrong
They plan it too tight. ABC can be walked quickly, but the descent back through Chhomrong and the drive to Pokhara take longer than the map suggests, and weather days happen. They also underestimate the cold above Deurali and pack for the warm lower villages. Bring a proper down jacket, gloves and a warm hat, even in October.
If ABC isn’t right for your dates
When the avalanche risk is high, or when people want something shorter and quieter with similar mountain views, we often suggest the Mardi Himal trek. It follows a ridge on the other side of Machhapuchhre, so there is no gorge to funnel snow onto the trail, and it fits into fewer days. It is a different walk, more exposed to wind and with fewer lodges, but a good one.
Permits and timing
You need an Annapurna Conservation Area permit: NPR 100 for Nepali citizens and NPR 3,000 for foreign nationals in 2026. Rules on guides for foreign trekkers have been tightening, so check the current requirement with us. The best months are October, November, and March to May, with spring carrying more avalanche risk early on and more cloud later.
If you are weighing up ABC, or want an honest read on conditions for your dates, message us on WhatsApp at +977 9851141663 or write to peacejourneytravel@gmail.com. Our office in Thamel talks to guides on the trail every week, and we will tell you straight what the Sanctuary is doing.
