Manaslu Lodge Trek

• 
• Add to wish list

Mt Manaslu trek was officially opened to trekkers in 1991, but mountaineering expeditions have long had access to the area. In 1950 a party led by HW Tilman trekked from Thonje to Bimtang and Colonel Jimmy Roberts crossed the Larkya La looking for an interesting mountain to climb. Mt Manaslu (8156m) was first attempted by Japanese expeditions in 1952.It thus became known as a "Japanese mountain" and much of the information about the area was available only in Japanese. The Japanese continued to dominate the climbing scene on Mt Manaslu until 1971. A few trekkers, including the peripatetic Hugh Swift, managed to obtain trekking permits for the region, but otherwise this trek has always been the domain of the mountaineering expedition. The book Honey Hunters of Nepal, by Eric Valli and Dianne Summers, makes good background reading for this area.
The Larkya La is not a difficult pass, in many places the walls of the Buri Gandaki valley are perpendicular, and so you cannot walk along the bottom of the valley. There is a huge amount of wasted climbing involved during the first part of the trekking tour as you climb 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. The trekking tour is remote and is geographically spectacular and culturally fascinating.