Manaslu Circuit Trekkers Are Trapped in a Nepali Village Right Now, Here's What We're Telling Clients

Key facts

• Samagaun sits at more than 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) on the Manaslu Circuit, usually day 6 of a 14 to 16-day trek
• Dozens of foreign trekkers, many of them Israeli nationals, have been unable to leave the village since Saturday night
• Nepal's Department of Tourism advisory covers 25 to 27 September: heavy rain, thunderstorms, strong wind and snow above the treeline
• The National Trust for Nature Conservation suspended new entry permits to the Annapurna and Manaslu conservation areas from 24 to 26 September

Rockslides triggered by days of continuous rain have blocked the roads and footbridges around Samagaun, a village on Nepal's Manaslu Circuit trek, trapping dozens of foreign trekkers there since Saturday night. Nobody has been reported injured, but the village has no power, rockfall is coming down close to the lodges every few hours, and rescue teams cannot yet reach it.

What's actually happening in Samagaun right now

Trekkers sheltering in Samagaun's lodges say the ground shakes every few hours as more rock comes down the slopes above the village, which sits on the main Manaslu Circuit route below Larke Pass. Nepal's authorities and the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu, working with local guides and trekking companies on the ground, say none of the stranded group has been injured, but both the road in and the trail out are currently impassable and the weather is too poor to fly a helicopter.

Is the Manaslu Circuit trek open or closed

The route is not formally closed end to end, but Gorkha district authorities are telling anyone with a Manaslu Circuit booking to postpone. This is the second serious disruption to the same trail in under two weeks: a flash flood near Namrung swept away houses and two suspension bridges on 20 September, severing the route until villagers hand-built a temporary wooden bridge and cleared an old path around it. That improvised route reopened, but the advisory issued after the flood was never lifted, and the fresh rockslides around Samagaun this weekend are a separate, later event on the same trail.

Why this keeps happening on this exact stretch of trail

The lower Manaslu Circuit runs through steep, forested gorges cut by glacier-fed rivers, and this September's rain has fallen on slopes already saturated from a wetter-than-usual monsoon. The same weather system has forced Manaslu's climbing expeditions to fly straight to base camp by helicopter rather than walk in, and Nepali outlets have reported this week that the 2026 Manaslu climbing season has effectively been called off for safety. Samagaun is the last real village before the climbers' route splits off from the trekkers' path over Larke Pass, the high point of the circuit at 5,106m, so weather bad enough to end the climbing season is also bad enough to strand trekkers passing through.

What we're telling clients with a Manaslu Circuit booking this week

What this means for your trek

If you're on the trail or due to start within the next few days, expect a delay, a reroute, or a night or two stuck in a lodge you didn't plan to sleep in, that's the honest version, not a reassurance. If your departure is three weeks or more out, this kind of blockage on this route has historically cleared within days once the rain breaks; we'd still hold off confirming a Larke Pass crossing date until closer to the time. We are not telling anyone the Manaslu Circuit is unsafe as a season, we are telling you this exact week is a bad one to be counting on a fixed itinerary.

When the route should reopen

Nepal's monsoon typically loses its grip through the first half of October, and the temporary bridge villagers built after the Therang Khola flood shows how fast a blocked trail gets a workaround here, that fix took days, not weeks. There's no official reopening date for Samagaun yet because rescue teams still can't safely reach it in this weather; the honest answer is that this clears when the rain does, and nobody can put a date on that from Kathmandu today.

Is it safe to book a Manaslu Circuit trek right now?

For October and later, yes, this is a weather event, not a structural change to the route, and the trail has reopened after worse. For a departure inside the next 7 to 10 days, wait for an update before locking in dates.

What happens if my trek is scheduled for next week?

A licensed operator on the ground will already know which sections are passable and will reroute or delay rather than push a group through an active rockslide zone. Ask directly whether your itinerary has changed before you fly to Kathmandu.

Is this the same as the avalanche at Himlung Himal?

No. Himlung Himal is a separate 7,126-metre peak roughly a valley away, where a different avalanche this week buried a mountaineering base camp and left Nepali staff missing. Samagaun's trekkers are stranded by blocked roads and bridges, not buried by snow, and the two incidents are being handled by separate rescue efforts.

Reporting also drawn from Explorersweb's coverage of the Manaslu trail closure and Nepali news coverage of the 2026 Manaslu season closure.

Cover photo: Abdul Kayum via Pexels (Pexels License). Section photos: Abdul Kayum via Pexels (Pexels licence); Arjay Neyra via Pexels (Pexels licence); Yaroslav Shuraev via Pexels (Pexels licence); Souhityo Das via Pexels (Pexels licence); Ghana Shyam Khadka via Pexels (Pexels licence).