Max. 5100m standard- med aim – hard
Season- October to May

Although the Larkya La is not a difficult pass, the trek around Manaslu is harder than most in Nepal. In many places the walls of the Buri Gandaki valley are perpendicular, so you cannot walk along the bottom of the valley. The trail up the Buri Gandaki is one of the more difficult routes in Nepal and there is a huge amount of wasted climbing as you trek up and down over ridges or onto shelves to bypass cliffs. The trail is rough and steep and it often literally hangs on a bluff high above the river and many bridges are in disrepair. Don’t read any further if you have the slightest tendency towards acrophobia. At lower elevations the valley is unpleasantly hot and humid, even in October and November. The trek is remote and has no rescue facilities or opportunities to bail out if you at tired. There are rough bhattis along the route, but few facilities that might conceivably be called a trekkers’ hotel between soti khola and Tilke.

The trek is geographically spectacular and culturally fascinating. The inhabitants of the upper Gandaki, a region known as Nupri (‘the western mountains’), are direct descendants of Tibetan immigrants who settled here in the early 1600s. In upper Nupri the speech, dress and customs are almost exclusively Tibetan. Nupri actually paid taxes to Tibetan until about 1840 and there is still continuous trade between Nupri and Tibet. Chinese cigarettes, for example, are found more frequently than Nepali cigarettes. The mountain views in Nupri are sensational, and the Larkya La is one of the most dramatic pass crossings in the Himalaya.

Because much of this trek is in a region of strong Tibetan influence, most places have Tibetan names in addition to their better known Nepali monikers. Where possible, the Tibetan name is shown in brackets, but the more common Nepali name appears throughout the text.