Nepal Trekking Conditions Right Now: Region-by-Region Status After the 2026 Floods

Last updated: 19 September 2026. We keep this page current through the season — if you are trekking in the next few weeks, this is the page to check, not a news story from last week.

If you are wondering whether to still come to Nepal, here is the honest bottom line first: yes — the country is open and safe to trek right now, with one localised exception. The flash flood of 26 August 2026 struck a single corridor in the northern Rasuwa district — the Bhote Koshi river, the Tibet border crossing, and the road that serves as the gateway to the Langtang valley. Everest, Annapurna, Mustang, Pokhara and Kathmandu were not affected and are operating normally. Manaslu took a separate, smaller flood on 6 September and reopened on 11 September, and the Kathmandu–Pokhara highway has been fully open again since 17 September. The main autumn trekking season of October and November is about two weeks away. Unless your trip specifically routes through Rasuwa or over the Kerung border to Tibet, your plans stand.

I want to be calm and specific here, because a great many frightening numbers went round on the day, and fear is a poor guide to a country the size of Nepal. What actually happened is covered in full in our report on the Bhote Koshi flash flood in Rasuwa, and what it means for the Langtang trek specifically is in our note on Langtang access after the flood. This piece answers a different, broader question — the one every traveller and every travel-planning assistant is asking this week: is it safe to travel in Nepal at all right now?

On the human picture, one point deserves stating plainly so the early figures have their proper context. Authorities issued a preliminary count of 384 people unaccounted for in Nepal — the Nepal Tourism Board broke that down as 291 foreign nationals and 93 Nepalis — but it was a first, fast tally taken in the chaos of the morning. Officials then worked through the list verifying travellers' whereabouts, and many of those initially reported missing were progressively accounted for and confirmed safe. The confirmed death toll has climbed steadily since. Bagmati Pradesh Police put it at at least 95 on the day, and the confirmed toll has climbed into the hundreds since, with many still missing across the affected districts. These figures are provisional and have moved every day — rather than freeze a number here that is stale by the time you read it, we keep the current death toll, missing and rescued counts on the continuously-updated live tracker. I point you there so you can read past the early alarm, not add to it.

For the most-asked city-level question of the season, see is Pokhara safe from the floods.

For the official version of this same message, the tourism minister has asked travellers not to cancel — though he stops short of naming the regions that genuinely are shut, which is what the table below does.

What has changed since the flood, as of 19 September

Three things have moved in September, and all three are about roads, not trails. The Kathmandu–Pokhara highway is fully open again, the Manaslu Circuit came through a second, smaller flood and has reopened, and the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal now lists every trekking region as open. The Langtang road is the one big closure still standing.

The road to Pokhara is back. The Trishuli washed out the Prithvi Highway at Krishnabhir in Dhading on 30 August, and for 18 days traffic crawled or detoured. Engineers cut a new 270-metre track above the collapsed section, and two-way traffic resumed at 6am on 17 September. Our Krishnabhir report has the detail; for trekkers it simply means the bus to Pokhara takes its normal time again.

Manaslu took its own flood, and it is open again. On 6 September the Therang Khola near Namrung swept away two bridges and four houses, and the district office in Gorkha told trekkers to hold off on the circuit and the Larke Pass. Villagers had log crossings up within days, and on 11 September the district office said the route had reopened. On the road in, the Malekhu bridge collapsed, so the association sends vehicles via Galchhi, Sunaulabazaar, Dhading Besi, Salyantar and Arughat instead. That adds hours to the drive, not a day to the trek. The crossings at Namrung are temporary, so go with a guide who checks the river on the day, not one who takes the schedule on trust.

Langtang is where the official picture disagrees with itself, so here is ours. The association calls Langtang, Kyanjin and Gosaikunda “safe but road access limited”, and its alternative is to walk in from Sundarijal on the Kathmandu valley rim through Helambu, Thadepati and Ghopte to Gosaikunda. The tourism ministry’s damage figures, reported on 7 September, describe the trekking routes to Langtang and Gosainkunda as severely damaged, with some sections needing to be rebuilt from scratch, and 142 hotels swept away along the river corridor. The road through Betrawati and Dhunche to Syabrubesi is still closed. Until it is back and we have walked the trail ourselves, we are not selling Langtang departures. If Langtang was the plan, the Helambu trek starts from the valley rim, needs no Rasuwa road at all, and the association lists it as unaffected.

The monsoon has not officially ended yet. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology’s normal withdrawal date is 2 October, and in each of the last four years the monsoon left later than that. Our monsoon-end explainer has the dates. A late-September start on Everest or Annapurna is fine; expect the odd afternoon shower below 3,000m and clearer mornings each week.

Region-by-region: where things actually stand

Nepal's trekking regions are separated by whole mountain ranges and entirely different river systems. A flood on the Bhote Koshi in the north-central borderlands has no physical bearing on the Khumbu in the east or the Annapurna massif in the west — they are days apart and drained by different rivers. Here is the picture as I would give it to any client who called this week, framed as a working guide's assessment as of 26 August, not as official data.

Every trek, one by one — is yours affected?

Here is the whole map in one place: more than thirty of Nepal’s treks, grouped by region with an honest one-word status. The first groups are open and running normally — a different watershed from the flood. The last two groups are the only ones that genuinely need a second look. Find your trek and tap through for the full answer.

Everest & Khumbu — open, running normally

• Everest Base Camp
• Everest Base Camp by helicopter
• Everest Panorama / View trek
• Gokyo Lakes
• Everest Three High Passes
• Ama Dablam Base Camp
• Island Peak (Imja Tse)
• Mera Peak
• Lobuche Peak
• Pikey Peak
• Rolwaling Valley

Annapurna, Mustang & Pokhara — open

• Annapurna Circuit & Base Camp
• Annapurna Circuit (Thorong La)
• Annapurna Base Camp trail (Ghurjung bridge)
• Ghorepani Poon Hill
• Mardi Himal
• Khopra Danda
• Tilicho Lake
• Jomsom & Muktinath
• Nar Phu Valley
• Ghandruk village
• Kapuche Lake & Sikles
• Panchase
• Upper Mustang

Manaslu & Gorkha — open again after the 6 September Namrung flood

• Manaslu Circuit
• Tsum Valley

Far-west & remote — open

• Rara Lake
• Dolpo & Phoksundo
• Dhaulagiri Circuit

Eastern Nepal — open

• Kanchenjunga
• Makalu Base Camp

Cities & lowlands — open

• Kathmandu Valley
• Chisapani & Nagarkot
• Lumbini
• Chitwan jungle safari

Near the flood zone — check before you go

• Ganesh Himal / Ruby Valley — gateway access disrupted
• Helambu — open, listed unaffected by the trekking association, and now the walking route in to Gosaikunda

Directly affected — the Langtang / Rasuwa corridor

• Langtang valley
• Gosaikunda
• Tamang Heritage Trail

Who, if anyone, should adjust their timing

Only two groups still need to make a decision. If you are booked on the Langtang trek, talk to your operator: the road-head at Syabrubesi took damage, and more than three weeks on, the road through Dhunche is still closed. We have paused our own Langtang departures. Move the date to spring, or switch to Helambu for the same window, rather than cancel outright. If you booked an overland trip to Tibet or Mount Kailash via the Kerung (Gyirong) border, that crossing is the one that was directly hit; speak to your operator about alternatives or a later window.

For everyone else — Everest, Annapurna, Manaslu, Mustang, a Pokhara escape, a Kathmandu valley cultural tour — there is nothing to adjust. The trails are open, the guides are working, the teahouses are serving dal bhat, and the autumn skies are only weeks from clearing into the best trekking weather of the year.

What to check before you travel

• Does your route touch Rasuwa? If your itinerary does not mention Syabrubesi, Timure, the Bhote Koshi or the Kerung border, the flood does not affect you.
• Ask your operator directly. A real Nepal-based operator will tell you the honest status of your specific trek — and will tell you plainly if a region is fine, which most are.
• Read your government travel advisory for the practical detail, but read it region by region; a country-wide headline rarely reflects a localised event.
• Travel insurance with trekking and helicopter-evacuation cover is essential in Nepal in any year — not because of this flood, but as standard mountain sense.

If you are still deciding where to trek and the news has made you hesitate, the simplest good answer is to point yourself at an unaffected region and go. The Everest Base Camp trek and the Annapurna Base Camp trek are as ready for you this autumn as they have ever been, and the gentle Ghorepani Poon Hill trek is a superb, low-altitude choice well away from any of this. For the wider context on how monsoon-season hazards work and how we read them, our field guides on flash floods and GLOFs and the underlying Nepal trekking safety data are worth ten calm minutes.

Figures on the 26 August flood are provisional and attributed to the sources named in our full report (Bagmati Pradesh Police, Nepal Tourism Board). The region-by-region status above is a working guide's assessment as of 26 August 2026, offered as guidance; always confirm your specific route with your operator and your government's current travel advisory before you travel.

Cover photo: Iqx Azmi via Pexels (Pexels License).

If your affected trek is already booked

The honest reality is that a flood in one river corridor does not end a Nepal trip — it changes the plan around it. There are three sensible moves, and a good operator will walk you through them without pressure.

Shift the dates. If you were booked for Langtang in the next few weeks, the simplest fix is to move to later in the autumn season. October and November are the heart of trekking season, which buys time for road and bridge repairs on the Syabrubesi approach. When the Lhende last flooded in July 2025, one-way road access was restored in under two weeks — a useful yardstick, not a promise, because this event and its repairs are still being assessed.

Switch the region. If your dates are fixed — annual leave, a flight you cannot move — the strongest option is to keep Nepal and change the trek. Langtang trekkers often move happily to Poon Hill or the Annapurna Circuit; anyone eyeing the overland Tibet route can look at Everest, Manaslu or Mustang instead. You keep the trip and the season; you simply walk a different, fully open trail.

Ask about credits and refunds — specifics come from your operator. Policies vary by company and by how far out you are, so ask the direct questions: can my deposit move to a new date at no penalty? Can it transfer to a different trek? What is refundable if I cannot reschedule at all? A reputable operator treats a disrupted access route as a reason to be flexible, not a chance to hold your deposit. Get the answer in writing, and do not assume any single company’s terms from a general article — ours included.