Manaslu drew a record 493 climbers this autumn, then the mountain shut it down
Updated 2 October. A record 493 climbers held Manaslu permits, but storms closed the season on 22 September with no summit reported and four deaths.
At a glance
- Published · updated
- TopicRecords & People
- Verified againstExplorersWeb
- Treks coveredAnnapurna Circuit Trek — 13 Days, Everest Base Camp Trek — 14 Days, Manaslu Circuit Trek — 16 Days
How the season ended — updated 2 October 2026
The biggest Manaslu season on record ended early, with no summit reported and four people dead. Permits reached a record 493 climbers from 41 teams, worth about $1.48 million in royalties (The Himalayan Times). Then heavy snow and a storm out of the Bay of Bengal shut the mountain. On 22 September Seven Summit Treks, the largest operator, announced: “For the safety of everyone on the mountain, we have made the decision to officially close the Manaslu 2026 season” (ExplorersWeb). Other outfitters followed, and everyone, including the rope-fixers, came down. We found no report of anyone reaching the summit before the closure.
Four people died. Singaporean climber Lau Wee Seng died on 17 September while descending from Camp 2; the cause has not been confirmed. A Nepali porter was found dead in his tent at base camp. On the night of 20 September an avalanche buried a tent at Camp III, killing Dhruba Jyoti Guha and Phursemba Sherpa. A week later, on 27 September, during the same run of storms, an avalanche hit Himlung Himal base camp and killed Nepali expedition workers. Most climbers who paid around $25,000 for a guided Manaslu expedition went home without a summit. The original preview follows.
Update — 19 September 2026
The season turned out far bigger than forecast. By 17 September the Department of Tourism had issued permits to 466 foreign climbers (342 men and 124 women), against the roughly 300 expected in August, and the rope-fixing team had secured the route to Camp 3. An avalanche above Camp III on 16 September interrupted the fixing but hurt no one. On the approach, a flash flood near Namrung on 6 September took two bridges and sent many teams to Samagaun by helicopter; the trail reopened on 11 September. The road to the trailhead still lacks the Malekhu bridge, and the trekking association routes vehicles via Galchhi, Dhading Besi, Salyantar and Arughat instead. The season has also seen two deaths: a young Nepali porter at Base Camp, and a Singaporean climber on 17 September, which we report here.
Sources at Nepal’s Department of Tourism expect to grant around 300 permits to international climbers on Manaslu this autumn, ExplorersWeb reported on 25 August 2026. Last year the department issued 381, and 659 people reached the summit. Base camp is being built now. The road that gets people to the start of the walk in is cut.
Key facts
- Manaslu is 8,163 m (26,781 ft), the world’s eighth-highest mountain, in Gorkha district.
- The Department of Tourism expects around 300 foreign permits this autumn, against 381 in 2025.
- A seven-member rope-fixing team led by Chhiring Bhote is fixing the route.
- Cho Oyu and Shishapangma are closed to foreign expeditions, which pushes first-time 8,000 m climbers here.
- The Malekhu–Dhading Besi road to the trailhead is closed, bridge collapsed, per a 28 August trekking-route advisory.
Why so many people go to this mountain
Manaslu is not the easiest 8,000 m peak. It is the one that is available. Cho Oyu and Shishapangma sit on the Tibetan side and are shut to foreign expeditions, and those two were for years the standard first 8,000er. With them closed, the traffic goes to Manaslu.
The mountain is also genuinely more forgiving than most in its class. The route is a snow climb rather than a technical one. That is not the same as safe. Manaslu’s upper slopes hold large amounts of loaded snow, and the section between Camp 2 and Camp 3 has a history of avalanche. A queue of three hundred people on a snow slope does not make the slope safer.
The Expedition Operators Association of Nepal put the figure at more than 300 foreign clients across ten outfitters when the season was being organised, and its president Damber Parajuli said agencies were finalising logistics while support staff pitched tents at base camp. Ram Krishna Lamichhane, Director General of the Department of Tourism, confirmed the government was preparing liaison officers, who are mandatory on every Nepali 8,000 m expedition.
The schedule the mountain runs on
Rope-fixing decides the season. A seven-member team under Chhiring Bhote is on the route. Once the line reaches the summit, everyone moves at once in the first clear window, and that is why summit day on Manaslu looks like a procession rather than a climb.
The dates repeat closely year to year. Last season the first summits came on 21 September. In 2024, more than 600 people had reached the top by 2 October. If this season runs to form, the mountain will be quiet again by the middle of October.
One climber is going the other way. Lukas Supergan of Poland has announced an attempt in September without supplemental oxygen and without Sherpa support. Above 8,000 m you have about a third of the oxygen you have at sea level. Doing it without bottled oxygen is not a harder version of the same climb; it is a different one, and very few finish it.
The season is compressed into roughly ten days once the rope reaches the top.
Foreign and Nepali climbers combined. First summits came on 21 September.
Cho Oyu and Shishapangma stay closed to foreign teams. Rope fixing is under way.
The part nobody has solved yet
Everything above assumes people can reach the mountain. On 28 August the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal listed the Manaslu region, Tsum Valley and the Larke Pass as cut off, because the Malekhu–Dhading Besi road lost a bridge in the 26 August floods. Two days later the Prithvi Highway itself subsided at Krishnabhir in Dhading, on the same corridor. Traffic stopped in both directions and no reopening date has been given.
Expeditions will get through. They charter helicopters when they have to, and a team with three hundred thousand dollars of client money on the mountain does not wait for a bridge. A trekker on a fixed two-week holiday has neither that budget nor that flexibility. Those are two different problems wearing the same road.
| Peak | Height | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Dhaulagiri | 8,167 m (26,795 ft) | Myagdi / Baglung |
| Manaslu | 8,163 m (26,781 ft) | Gorkha |
| Himlung Himal | 7,126 m (23,379 ft) | Manang |
| Ama Dablam | 6,812 m (22,349 ft) | Khumbu |
What this means for trekkers
What this means for you
You do not need a climbing permit to feel this season. The Manaslu Circuit shares its lower valley with every one of these expeditions, so Samagaon and Samdo fill with climbers, base-camp staff and porters through late September and early October. That is worth knowing either way — it is a livelier trail than the monsoon shoulder, and it is a harder trail to find a bed on. The bigger issue this year is the approach. Do not book a September Manaslu Circuit start until the road position is confirmed for your week; mid-October is the safer bet, and if your dates cannot move, the Annapurna Circuit and Everest were both listed as unaffected.
Do I need a permit to trek the Manaslu Circuit?
Yes, and more than one. The circuit needs a Restricted Area Permit as well as the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit, and a licensed guide is mandatory — Manaslu had that rule before Nepal extended it more widely. Our cost and permit breakdown has the current figures.
Is the Manaslu Circuit the same as climbing Manaslu?
No. The circuit is a trek that crosses the Larke Pass at just over 5,100 m (about 16,700 ft) and never goes on the mountain itself. The expedition goes to 8,163 m. They share a valley and nothing else.
Will the crowds spoil the trek?
Not in the way people fear. The expedition traffic branches off toward base camp above Samagaon, so the circuit beyond that point stays quiet. What it affects is lodge availability in two villages for about three weeks.
The mountain will be busy, then it will be empty. It goes that way every year. Whether anyone can drive to it is this season’s open question.
Thinking about Manaslu this autumn?
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Manaslu Circuit Trek — 16 Days · Annapurna Circuit Trek — 13 Days · Everest Base Camp Trek — 14 Days
Sources: ExplorersWeb, 25 August 2026, for the permit estimate, the 2025 and 2024 figures, the rope-fixing team and the Cho Oyu and Shishapangma closures; The Tourism Times for the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal figures and official comment; Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal route advisory, 28 August 2026, for the road position. For the season’s end: The Himalayan Times, 22 September 2026 (permits and royalties); ExplorersWeb, 22 and 27 September 2026; Alan Arnette, 22 September 2026 (deaths and operators closing); Malay Mail and Nepalnews, 17 September 2026 (Lau Wee Seng).
Cover photo: Pratapgrg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Section photos: pierre matile via Pexels (Pexels licence); Alois Lackner via Pexels (Pexels licence); Arif Baroya via Pexels (Pexels licence); Arjay Neyra via Pexels (Pexels licence).
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