our Earthquake Diaries: Nepal 2015, published by CreateSpace/Amazon. (ISBN: 978 1 51506 316 2).
Annapurna Circuit
Most of the changes over recent years affect this route, so much of the guide concentrates on this trek, introducing some previously neglected side trips and new alternatives to walking on or close to the new ‘roads’. It remains the classic trek and is still a top trekking destination. Roads may change it but will not destroy it (after all, Switzerland has both side by side).
Annapurna Sanctuary
Another classic favourite where little change, other than ever-improving comfort, has occurred. The views from this cloud-bubbling cauldron are still hard to beat.
Ghorepani Circuit
Affectionately known as the Poon Hill Expedition, this has all the ingredients for a short, spell-binding adventure in the foothills. Terraced hillsides, fairytale forests and soaring snow-covered spires contrive to make any visit a memorable one.
Annapurna–Dhaulagiri
Once a hidden treasure, this route is gradually becoming more popular. Still mainly a camping option, its high isolated ridges will soon see an influx of trekkers, as community homestays open along its lower reaches. The airy belvederes of the Kopra Danda ridge are sensational; even the most experienced trekking hand will be blown away.
Restricted areas
Many would-be explorers are drawn to the captivating Tibetan culture and the plateau’s fantastic scenery. In these remote mountains, specialist trekkers can delve into the natural world, capturing magnificent predators like lammergeyer on camera, tracking the bashful Himalayan bear, sniffing out the elusive snow leopard and even yearning for the yeti.
Mustang
Mani wall in Mustang
Upper Mustang, with its extraordinary walled city of Lo Manthang, has long been the fabled Shangri-La. Getting there is every bit as fascinating and inspiring. Where in the world can you find such unbelievable variation – the highest peaks of the Himalayas, mysterious canyons, legend-filled settlements, staggering geology and contorted natural landscapes?
Nar-Phu
Perhaps the most astonishing region of all the Annapurnas, Nar-Phu is as barely known as it is inaccessible. Cut off for centuries by the highest passes and the most impenetrable, sheer-sided canyon in Nepal, the medieval villages of Nar and Phu are some of the country’s most closely guarded secrets. Trekking here takes one to a new level of adventure and wonder.
Other treks
Long overlooked are two routes below Machhapuchhre: the Mardi Himal Trek and the Machhapuchhre Trek. Both climb above the tree line to the wild, rugged base camps of Mardi Himal.
Lower down the hillsides trekkers can enjoy close contact with local people and their villages; eco-friendly, cultural homestay treks are the new thing. West of Poon Hill on the sunny slopes above the Kali Gandaki River are the Parbat Myagdi treks. Not far from Pokhara is the Siklis Trek; once popular with camping groups, it remains a peaceful and traditional area. The Lamjung foothills – around Chowk Chisopani–Tandrangkot–Puranokot – are the latest area to introduce homestay trekking. A little further north, the Gurung Heritage Trail is sure to be enjoyed by increasing numbers of trekkers in the future.
The joy of discovering these routes must be tempered with some words of warning: no trek to the remote Himalayan region can be underrated in terms of objective danger. Sections of this guide are devoted to the essential advance planning that is required by any potential visitor, especially because of the isolation, difficulty of access, and sheer ‘different-ness’ of the destination.
Having spent over half our lives trekking in Nepal, we have never tired of the Himalayas. Our youthful romantic notions about these distant, lofty peaks have not dwindled with age – we find ourselves drawn to these mountains, time and time again. It is an addiction that is hard to shed, so beware – you too may find that the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ trek becomes habit-forming!
Geography
Climbing from Putak with the Thorong La in view (Trek 1)
Stretching over 2500km from the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Pakistan in the west, the Himalayas form an unbroken chain that divides the plains of India from the Tibetan plateau. Nepal is 250km wide on average and roughly 800km in length. The country’s highest peaks, from east to west – Kangchenjunga, Makalu, Everest, Lhotse, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, all exceeding 8000m in height – are located along its northern borders.
From fossil records in Nepal and Tibet, it is estimated that a sea existed in this area about 100 million years ago. At some time in the following 50 million years India began to ‘collide’ with Tibet through the process of plate tectonics. Some 40–45 million years ago, the Indian plate continued its northward march, forcing the Tibetan plateau upwards. Around 20 million years ago, the main Himalayan chain was formed by the same process. The Himalayas have continued to rise over the last two million years.
Nepal’s border region with India, a narrow, once-malarial jungle strip called the Terai, has been cleared for agriculture and today provides the majority of the population with food. Rising abruptly from the plains of India are the Siwalik Hills: dramatic, steep, yet fragile, being easily denuded by the heavy rains. The steep and forested Mahabharat Hills, rising to over 3000m, mark the southern edge of the middle hills of Nepal, where most of the rural population lives. Most visitors trek through this area – home to the valleys of Kathmandu and Pokhara – marvelling at the impressive farming terraces and rolling hills dotted with quaint houses.
The Himalayan mountains comprise a relatively small zone along the northern border with Tibet/China, but are the visual focus of the whole country. The main Himalayan range is not a watershed; dynamic fast-flowing rivers cut through these mountains, giving access to the inner sanctuaries of the peaks. The main watershed ranges are north of the Nepal Himalayas in Tibet – equally astonishing and alluring mountains – with an altitude range of roughly 3000–8848m (the summit of Everest).
Climate
To see the greatness of a mountain… one must see it at sunrise and sunset, at noon and at midnight, in sun and in rain, in snow and in storm, in summer and in winter and in all the other seasons.
The Way of the White Clouds, Lama Anagarika Govinda
The Himalayas are an amazing natural barrier that divides the main weather systems of Asia, affecting the climate in a unique manner. The southern Indian plains experience hot, humid monsoon patterns in the northern hemisphere summer, with cooler, dry, high-pressure-dominated winter periods. In Tibet to the north the climate is harsh, cold and windy. The mountains cause a rain shadow creating a desert-like region, with only the far south of Tibet experiencing any influence of the monsoon. The Annapurna range sits between these two extremes, making a trek in the south very different from one in the north. It is these contrasting climates that make the Annapurna Circuit trek one of such variety. For the specific effects of the climate on trekkers see ‘When to go’.
Plants,
