Manaslu circuit---anyone done it?

[newfydog]

We're heading to Nepal next week to trek up the Tsum valley and hopefully around the Manaslu circuit. Nepali treks are sort of like a camino, except there are more religious sites. Lots of prayer wheels to spin. The tea houses are rather like an albergue,

We did the Annapurna circuit years ago, and it was one of the best trips ever, but with my 60th birthday next month I thought I'd better do some of these hard ones soon.

Have any of the intrepid hikers on this board done the route? Any favorite places?

 

[Kitsambler]

Not me personally. But some local folks have been in that area. Make sure you have very good travel insurance coverage. Read the coverage of the Sherpas killed in the ice fall?

 

[mralisn]

This sounds like an incredible trip. Wish I could assist.

Is the photo of the Annapurna Circuit? This is one of my options for next summer.

 

[newfydog]

This sounds like an incredible trip. Wish I could assist.

Is the photo of the Annapurna Circuit? This is one of my options for next summer.

The photo is clipped from something on the Manaslu circuit. We did the Annapurna in 1995, and all my pictures are slides! The Manaslu circuit is next door to the Annapurna and they share a common section for a few days. Road development has shortened the Annapurna circuit considerably. In the Manaslu region, we are looking for a route not entirely over run by tourists and development. Sound familiar??? I'll see if the rumors of the Annapurna losing some of its charm are true. Certainly, I would avoid anything in the Everest region.

Kitzambler, I appreciate your concern, but neither of these sightseeing routes have any significant ice fall hazard. They have passes above 17,000 feet and you see some nice glaciers, but there is no technical climbing and you don't pass under any hanging glaciers. Freak things are always possible though. On the Annapurna route a mudslide wiped out a village the day after we left it, killing 17 people, including some Canadians we rode in with.

Edit: As we speak, it looks like a blizzard trapped a number of people out there, some climbers died in avalanches, and a trekker was washed down a river. That's pretty much what we saw on our trek in 1995. Normally the Oct-November weather is remarkably stable , but a storm can roll through. We had 25 days of blue sky and sun, and two days of incredible snowstorm. We just stayed put in a safe town for a few days and waited for the sun to come out and the snow to stabilize.

 

[Pelegrin]

I did the trekking to the Annapurna base camp (4400 mts, 13200 F) in 199x and I had problems with my acclimatization to the altitude. This factor, no matter if you are in a good shape, is important to consider before doing these routes.

 

[newfydog]

I did the trekking to the Annapurna base camp (4400 mts, 13200 F) in 199x and I had problems with my acclimatization to the altitude. This factor, no matter if you are in a good shape, is important to consider before doing these routes.

You're tougher than you think---that's 14,426 feet!

 

[Julian Mark Smith]

We're heading to Nepal next week to trek up the Tsum valley and hopefully around the Manaslu circuit. Nepali treks are sort of like a camino, except there are more religious sites. Lots of prayer wheels to spin. The tea houses are rather like an albergue,

We did the Annapurna circuit years ago, and it was one of the best trips ever, but with my 60th birthday next month I thought I'd better do some of these hard ones soon.

Have any of the intrepid hikers on this board done the route? Any favorite places?

View attachment 14396

We walked Manaslu last year, plus Annapurna. We walked the Tilman Pass and Lang Tang Valley in May this year. See our blog: megandmarksmith@blogspot.com

 

[newfydog]

Nice blog, and heck of a trip! Wow, has the Annapurna circuit changed!

When we did it 19 years ago it was a week of trekking to get from where you got the jeep in Muktinath to Pokara.

The Manaslu-Tsum trip was great. I'd say the Manaslu and Tsum areas are at about the stage of development the Annapurna was in 19 years ago. Our 60+ year old crew did great, and we would have liked to continued around the Annapurna with the new lux accommodations and food, but we wanted to fit in a jungle trip too, so we turned left and picked up a jeep in Chamje. It was 22 days all together.

It was sad to see the big dam project in the lower Marsyandi. I'd recommend anyone who wants to see the Annapurna area today do it they way JM Smith went.