Nepal is open for the autumn season, and glad you are coming.
Everest, Annapurna and Thorong La are open. Langtang treks stay paused while the Rasuwa road is rebuilt; Mustang and Manang roads are still being repaired.
News desk
Every story, newest first.
Records & People
Seventy years after Joe Brown and George Band summited the world's third-highest mountain and stopped short of its final steps out of respect for local belief, we compare the remote Kanchenjunga Base Camp Trek against Everest and Annapurna on cost, permits, difficulty and crowds.
Flights & Access
No direct flights, real routings via Doha and Istanbul, an all-in cost table in euros from our own rates, a sample 12-day Everest Base Camp itinerary and the best season — a plain planning guide for Italian trekkers.
Records & People
DNA testing in 2026 named ‘Green Boots’, the climber who marked Everest’s north route for 30 years. The 1996 storm behind him, and the plan to bring him home.
Breaking Records & People
The Karakoram avalanche that killed the record-breaking Nepali climber also killed five of his Nepali teammates in a single morning. Here is everything confirmed so far, and what it means for how you vet a Himalayan expedition.
Records & People
On 3 June 1950, two Frenchmen became the first humans to stand on an 8,000-metre summit — three years before Everest. The descent nearly killed them both.
Safety & Advisories
Climbers came home with before-and-after photos. Nepal's tourism department told them not to talk about it. Here's what actually happened to the Hillary Step — and why the same stretch of ridge is still making headlines in 2026.
Industry & Tourism
China's 2025 pledge to flood Nepal with half a million visitors delivered barely a fifth of that number. Days ago, a five-person tourism delegation from Sichuan sat down with Nepal Tourism Board to plan the next attempt.
Trail & Weather
One crosses a 5,416-metre pass into the desert beyond the Himalaya; the other walks into a glacial amphitheatre at 4,130 metres. Here's which one actually matches what you're picturing when you say Annapurna.
Flights & Access
No airline flies nonstop from the US to Kathmandu — here is exactly how Americans actually get there, what a real Everest Base Camp trek costs in dollars, and an itinerary built around the flight.
Flights & Access
No direct flight links Frankfurt or Munich to Kathmandu, but a Doha or Istanbul connection gets you there in under 15 hours — here is what a two-week Everest trek actually costs a German trekker this year.
Industry & Tourism
Both are Himalayan kingdoms that mandate a licensed guide for every trekker — but their tourism economics, and who they actually suit, could not be more different.
Permits & Rules
A March 2026 Department of Immigration order scrapped the two-person minimum for Nepal's 13 restricted trekking districts — verified against the government's own notice. Here is exactly what changed, and what still has not.
Festivals & Events
Mani Rimdu, the Sherpa Buddhist festival that has run for over a century, returns to Tengboche Monastery around 26–28 October 2026. Here is what actually happens, and how to build an Everest Base Camp trek around it.
Culture & Heritage
Joe Brown and George Band summited Kangchenjunga on a promise never to stand on its true top. A 2025 Indian Army climb from the Nepal side broke that unwritten rule again, and reignited a decades-old fight over whether the mountain should be climbed at all.
Flights & Access
There is still no nonstop flight from Britain to Kathmandu. Here is the real routing, an all-in cost table in pounds, and a day-by-day Everest Base Camp itinerary for UK trekkers booking autumn 2026.
Industry & Tourism
No airline flies nonstop from Australia to Nepal, but the fastest routing still beats Qantas's record-breaking nonstop to London — real flight times, AUD trek costs and a sample itinerary for 2026.
Safety & Advisories
Four of the fourteen 8,000ers sit in the Karakoram, and the range gets the reputation. The numbers, peak by peak, point somewhere else entirely.
Industry & Tourism
Marriott went from no hotels in Nepal seven years ago to five open and four signed, including its first Ritz-Carlton. Why chains think Kathmandu is ready.
Industry & Tourism
Rara Lake is bigger than Phewa, sits inside Nepal's smallest national park, and changes colour up to five times a day — yet only 208 travellers from outside South Asia saw it in the latest full tally. Here's the Himalaya's best-kept secret, by the numbers.
Safety & Advisories
A helicopter can put you at Everest Base Camp in one day for about the same group price as the trek. Here's what the extra 9-14 days actually buy you, according to CDC altitude-risk guidance and our own 2026 pricing.
Industry & Tourism
Nepal has no official tipping rate, but tips make up an estimated 30-50% of a guide or porter’s yearly income. What trekkers actually pay, and how.
Safety & Advisories
EBC and ABC are both sold as moderate treks, but altitude, not distance, is what actually separates them. Here are the real training benchmarks, not the hype.
Safety & Advisories
Nepal has required every foreign trekker to hire a licensed guide since April 2023, which changes the real question for solo women from should I go alone to how do I pick the right guide and route. Here is the honest checklist.
Records & People
Kristin Harila, who summited all 14 of the world's 8,000m peaks in a record 92 days, has now completed Everest's brutal Triple Crown — mostly without bottled oxygen.
