Thorong La Pass Guide 2026: Crossing the Annapurna Circuit's 5,416m High Point

The crux of the Circuit

Thorong La, at 5,416m, is the highest point of the Annapurna Circuit and one of the highest trekking passes in the world crossed on a classic route. Reaching the prayer-flag-draped saddle is the climax of the trek — but it demands respect.

Coming down the western side you land in Muktinath and then Jomsom. From there it is about 180 km back to Pokhara, 7 to 9 hours by jeep, or a 20-minute morning flight.

Phedi or High Camp? The decision that shapes your crossing

This is the real choice on Thorong La, and most guides make it without explaining it.

Thorong Phedi (4,450m). You sleep lower, which means you sleep better and acclimatise more safely. The cost is a longer summit day — you start with a steep 450m climb to High Camp before the pass proper, adding roughly an hour to an already long day.

High Camp (4,900m). You shorten the crossing considerably and start the morning already high. The cost is a night at 4,900m, which is a serious altitude to sleep at. Some people do not sleep at all, and arrive at the pass tired rather than rested.

Our rule: if you have acclimatised well through Manang and the high route via Ghyaru and Ngawal, and you feel good at Phedi, High Camp makes the summit day much more manageable. If you have any headache at Phedi, sleep at Phedi. A longer day beats a bad night at 4,900m every single time.

The crossing day, hour by hour

Expect 7–9 hours from Phedi, or 6–7 from High Camp.

• 4–5am — start, in the dark. Not for the view. You go early to be over the top before the afternoon wind, and to leave daylight for a very long descent.
• The climb. Two to four hours of false summits. Every rise looks like the pass and is not. Small steps, steady breathing, and do not race anyone.
• 8–10am — the pass. Prayer flags, a sign, and usually a tea shack that may or may not be open. It is cold and windy and nobody lingers long.
• The descent. 1,600m down to Muktinath (3,800m), and it takes longer than anyone expects — often four hours or more. This is the part that hurts.

What it is actually like up there

Cold, dark and slow. You climb by headlamp in a line of small lights strung up the hillside. At 5,000m the air holds roughly half the oxygen of sea level, so the pace that feels absurdly slow at the bottom is the correct one.

At the top there are prayer flags, a sign everyone photographs, and a view that runs in every direction. Most people stay fifteen minutes. It is too cold and too windy to stay longer, and you still have the whole descent ahead.

Practical things that go wrong

• Water freezes. A hydration bladder's tube ices up within the first hour and becomes useless. Carry bottles, and keep one inside your jacket.
• Batteries die in the cold. Phones shut down at those temperatures. Keep them in an inside pocket, not a rucksack.
• There is nothing to buy between High Camp and the pass. Carry the day's food and water with you.
• Your knees take the real punishment on the descent, not the climb. Poles are not optional here — 1,600m of downhill on tired legs is where people injure themselves.

Altitude — what to watch for

Headache, poor sleep and no appetite at Phedi or High Camp are normal and usually settle. What is not normal, and means going down immediately rather than over the pass:

• Loss of coordination — stumbling, or being unable to walk a straight line
• Confusion, or behaving oddly in a way others notice first
• Breathlessness at rest, or a wet, crackly cough

Those are signs of HACE and HAPE, both of which are life-threatening at 5,416m and both of which improve on descent. The pass will not care that you have flown a long way to be there.

Weather — and why the buffer day exists

Snow closes Thorong La, sometimes for days. In October 2014 a freak storm killed more than forty people in the Annapurna region, many of them caught on or near this pass, and a good number of those deaths were people who pressed on when conditions turned.

That is the entire argument for carrying a spare day on the Circuit. With a buffer you wait at Manang or Phedi and cross when it clears. Without one you face a choice between an unsafe crossing and abandoning the trek — and people under time pressure make the wrong choice.

The reward

Standing on Thorong La at sunrise, prayer flags snapping, the Himalaya stretching in every direction, is one of trekking's great moments. Cross it well-acclimatised, well-timed, and with a good guide. See the full Annapurna Circuit guide and read how to skip the jeep road.