Is the Jomsom–Muktinath Trek Affected by the 2026 Nepal Floods?

No — Jomsom and Muktinath sit in Mustang, in the rain shadow behind the Himalaya and on a different river from the Rasuwa flood. The trek is running normally; the only thing to plan around is flight-or-jeep access.

BA By Bishnu Adhikari · Aug 29, 2026 · 6 min read · ▶ Web Story

The Muktinath temple complex and the arid Mustang high desert on the Kali Gandaki, Nepal — in the Himalayan rain shadow behind Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, unaffected by the 2026 Rasuwa flood

At a glance

PublishedAug 29, 2026
TopicSafety & Advisories
ReportingOriginal, by our guides in Pokhara

📍 Developing story — live updates

The 2026 Nepal floods are a nationwide, still-developing emergency and the figures are rising. For the latest verified death toll, missing and rescued numbers and trek status, follow our continuously updated Nepal Floods 2026: Live Updates.

Last updated: 29 August 2026. I keep this page honest and current. If you have a Jomsom–Muktinath pilgrimage or trek booked this autumn, here is the straight answer first, then the detail.

Is the Jomsom–Muktinath trek affected by the 2026 Nepal floods? No — it is in Mustang, in the rain shadow behind the Himalaya, and it is running normally. The flash flood of 26 August 2026 came down the Bhote Koshi into Rasuwa district in the far north, hitting Timure and Syabrubesi on the Tibet border. Jomsom, Kagbeni and the temple at Muktinath (3,760 m) sit in Mustang district, on the Kali Gandaki — a completely separate river system, and one of the driest, safest corners of Nepal to be in right now. There is one honest caveat: how you get in, by flight or by jeep, both of which the monsoon can disrupt. I cover it in full below.

Jomsom–Muktinath trek — the honest status

Affected by the 26 August flood? No. That flood was on the Bhote Koshi in Rasuwa. Muktinath is in Mustang on the Kali Gandaki — a different river, roughly 150 km to the west, with the whole Annapurna–Dhaulagiri wall in between.
Mustang is in the rain shadow. The high Himalaya wrings the monsoon dry before it reaches Jomsom, so this region gets very little rain even in August. The trail itself stays dry and open when the rest of Nepal is soaked.
Access is the thing to confirm. You reach Jomsom either by the 25-minute flight from Pokhara or by jeep up the Kali Gandaki. The flight is weather-dependent and monsoon cloud and wind cause cancellations; the road (about 180 km, 7–9 hours via Beni) has landslide and rockfall sections in the rains. The Beni–Jomsom road was hit by landslides in late August 2026 — normal monsoon behaviour that eases as autumn arrives.
Best season is weeks away. October and November bring clear skies, reliable flights and firm roads — the prime window for this trek and pilgrimage.
Permits are simple and Kathmandu/Pokhara-issued. Lower Mustang needs only the ACAP card (plus TIMS on the trekking version), arranged nowhere near Rasuwa.

Why Mustang and Rasuwa are different worlds

Nepal is not one small place where a single flood touches everything. Its regions are split by great ranges and drained by separate rivers that stay apart until the plains. The 26 August flood surged down the Bhote Koshi, which flows out of Tibet into Rasuwa and on into the Trishuli, hitting Timure and Syabrubesi hardest according to reporting collated by Wikipedia’s running summary and outlets including CNN. That corner of the country is the Langtang gateway. It is not on the Muktinath route, and no part of this pilgrimage passes through Rasuwa.

The Jomsom–Muktinath journey follows the Kali Gandaki, the deepest gorge on earth, up between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna into the high desert of Mustang. Because those two 8,000-metre giants block the monsoon, Mustang is arid — sculpted red cliffs, wind, and thin cloud, not the green, rain-soaked hills of the south. This is exactly why so many people head here in the shoulder monsoon: while other trails are wet, Mustang stays walkable. A flood on the Bhote Koshi in the north has no physical bearing on it.

The route, stage by stage

The clearest way to see why your trek is fine is to trace it as we actually run it and check each stage against the flood zone.

Jomsom–Muktinath: each stage and its exposure to the Rasuwa flood (guide’s assessment, 29 August 2026)
Stage / region	Watershed & where it is	Status & what to do
Pokhara (start, ACAP permit)	Gandaki hub	Normal — permit issued as usual
Pokhara → Jomsom by flight	Over the Annapurna–Dhaulagiri wall	Running; monsoon cloud/wind can cancel — keep a buffer day
Pokhara → Jomsom by jeep (alternative)	Kali Gandaki road via Beni	Open, but landslide/rockfall sections in rain — confirm on the day
Jomsom → Kagbeni	Lower Mustang, Kali Gandaki	Trail open, dry, teahouses running
Kagbeni → Muktinath (3,760 m)	Jhong valley, Mustang	Open — not in the flood zone; semi-arid and calm
Return to Pokhara (flight or jeep)	Kali Gandaki / Gandaki	Same access notes as the inbound leg

The only permit — the ACAP entry card, and a TIMS card on the trekking version — is issued in Pokhara or Kathmandu, nowhere near Rasuwa, so the flood has no effect on your paperwork. Many pilgrims combine Muktinath with a fly-in Annapurna Circuit; if that is your plan, the same conclusion holds, and our region-by-region conditions page tracks the wider road picture.

How we run Jomsom–Muktinath safely this autumn

Nothing exotic — just the discipline this trip has always needed. We build a buffer day around the Pokhara–Jomsom flight so a weather cancellation does not wreck the itinerary, and we keep the jeep option ready as a fallback. On the road, if a landslide closes a section of the Kali Gandaki route, we wait it out or walk the blocked stretch and pick the vehicle up beyond it rather than force it through. Muktinath itself is not high enough to be a serious altitude worry, but we still pace it sensibly. And we book a guide who checks flight and road status daily and tells you the truth — including when to move a flight forward or back a day.

A local guide’s take

Let me be precise rather than reassuring. The 26 August flood was a Bhote Koshi event in Rasuwa; Muktinath is a Kali Gandaki pilgrimage in Mustang, in the rain shadow behind Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. Two different rivers, and one of them barely sees rain. The only real thing to plan around here is access — the flight that monsoon cloud can cancel, and the Kali Gandaki road that the rains can block — both of which ease into October. Cancelling a Muktinath trip over a flood in another watershed would be the wrong call. Building a buffer day into your travel is the right one.

What you can book for autumn

Muktinath departures running normally this October and November

These are the trips we are putting people on right now, priced from the per-person rate a small group pays:

Jomsom Muktinath Trek — 7 days · from US$699 per person in a group of eight (US$899 solo). The classic pilgrimage trek to the temple and back.
Annapurna Circuit — Fly Jomsom, 12 days · from US$1,080 per person in a group of eight (US$1,480 solo). The full circuit finishing with the Jomsom flight out.

Want to check a specific date, or whether to fly or drive, before you commit? Message us on WhatsApp or use the contact form. No pressure — if a date does not look right, I will tell you.

Annapurna Base Camp Trek — 5 Days is running normally

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Annapurna Base Camp Trek — 5 Days$580 pp