Manaslu is frequently described as what the Annapurna Circuit felt like before road construction and mass tourism reshaped it — a full circuit around an 8,000m peak, through terraced villages and Tibetan Buddhist culture, crossing a glaciated pass on par with the Annapurna Circuit’s famous Thorong La, but on a restricted-permit trail that keeps numbers a fraction of its neighbour’s.
The route follows the Budhi Gandaki river valley from Soti Khola, gaining altitude gradually through a series of villages that grow progressively more Tibetan in character as the trail approaches Samagaon and Samdo, the last settlements before Larkya La. The pass crossing itself, at 5,106m, is a full glaciated traverse comparable in difficulty and scale to Thorong La, descending into the meadow at Bimthang before joining the lower Annapurna Circuit trail near Dharapani.
Because the region requires a restricted-area permit and minimum group size, Manaslu can’t be trekked independently — but for trekkers willing to book through a registered operator, it offers arguably the closest experience available today to what the Annapurna Circuit once was.
