Is Trekking in Nepal Dangerous? What the Real 2025/26 Death Data From Annapurna Shows

Is trekking in Nepal dangerous? Nepal's own 2025/26 data gives an honest, and slightly surprising, answer: not in the way most people fear. Twenty-five tourists died of altitude sickness in the Annapurna Conservation Area in the fiscal year to mid-July 2026, up from 19 the year before, and the great majority of those deaths trace back to one avoidable mistake, skipping acclimatisation, not bad luck on a mountain.

What Nepal's own numbers say

Twenty-five altitude deaths in one year, and fifteen of them in a single district. The figures come from the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), reported by The Himalayan Times on 22 July 2026. Of the 25 who died, 12 were Nepali (including four trekking guides and porters), nine were Indian, and one each was Japanese, Mexican, Spanish and Singaporean. It is not a steady climb: the toll fell from 21 to 19 the year before, then jumped to 25.

Why Mustang, specifically

ACAP's chief, Dr Rabin Kadel, pointed to a specific pattern: acute mountain sickness is particularly common among Nepali and Indian visitors who drive directly to high-altitude destinations such as Muktinath (3,800m) without any acclimatisation days built in. That is the opposite of how a walking trek works. Someone flying into Kathmandu and trekking to Annapurna Base Camp (4,130m) or around the Annapurna Circuit gains altitude gradually over a week or more, with rest days built into the route, exactly the pattern that prevents AMS. Someone driven up a paved road to Muktinath in an afternoon skips that step entirely.

Altitude, not accidents, is the risk on the trails

On the walking trails the dominant danger is altitude sickness, not avalanches or falls. It's worth separating this from the other kind of Himalayan risk people picture, avalanches, falls, a climber lost on an 8,000m peak. Nepal lost climbers in a Broad Peak avalanche in Pakistan this summer, and five bodies were recovered in August, nine months after a separate avalanche on Yalung Ri. Those risks are real and can't be engineered away, but they belong to unguided or semi-guided technical mountaineering, not Base Camp trekking. On the walking trails that carry the vast majority of Nepal's foreign visitors, Annapurna Base Camp, the Annapurna Circuit, Everest Base Camp, Mardi Himal, the dominant real threat is altitude sickness, and altitude sickness is the one Himalayan danger that responds almost completely to pacing.

What actually protects you

Every Travel Himalaya Nepal itinerary is built around this exact logic: altitude is gained in stages, with acclimatisation days scheduled at Namche-equivalent altitudes, and a licensed guide walks with the group who is trained to recognise AMS early and descend a client immediately rather than push on.

Two questions to ask before you book

Ask how many rest days are built into the itinerary at altitude, and whether the guide is licensed and trained to recognise AMS. Those two answers matter more than almost anything else on the trip, and an operator who cannot answer them precisely has told you something. For a longer checklist, see our guide on choosing a safe trekking company in Nepal.

Source: The Himalayan Times, citing the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).

Cover photo: Ashok Sharma via Pexels (Pexels License). Section photos: Ashok J Kshetri via Pexels (Pexels licence); Rajan Pun via Pexels (Pexels licence); Jędrzej Koralewski via Pexels (Pexels licence).