Is the Tsum Valley Trek Affected by the 2026 Nepal Floods?

The honest answer up front: no. The Tsum Valley trek is not affected by the 2026 floods, and the trail is running normally. This one needs one line of clarification, because people hear "restricted valley near the Tibet border" and assume it is next to the disaster. It is not. Tsum Valley is in the Manaslu region of Gorkha district, on the Budhi Gandaki river. The 26 August flood hit the Bhote Koshi in Rasuwa — a different valley, a different district, one range to the east. Tsum is Manaslu-adjacent, not Rasuwa-adjacent. That distinction is the whole answer.

Where Tsum Valley is — and why the flood didn't touch it

Tsum is a sacred, sealed-off side valley — a Buddhist beyul where, by long tradition, it is forbidden to kill any animal. It branches north-east off the main Manaslu approach along the Budhi Gandaki, deep in Gorkha district. The Budhi Gandaki is a separate valley system from the Bhote Koshi: they run down different sides of the central Himalaya and only meet the wider river network far downstream. The flood surge in Rasuwa came down the Bhote Koshi into the Trishuli in the north-centre of the country; it did not travel up the Budhi Gandaki to Gorkha. Different valley, different approach, one range apart.

I'll give you the honest version rather than a marketing one. The Manaslu–Tsum region as a whole reported normal trail conditions after the August floods, and restricted-area permit processing continued as usual. The genuine monsoon weakness here is not the flood at all — it is the access road. The lower Budhi Gandaki gorge road to Machha Khola is notorious for going soft or blocking after heavy rain, every monsoon, flood year or not. That is why we plan buffer days and why late August is not the season for this trek anyway.

Permits — unchanged by the flood

Tsum Valley is a restricted area: you need a Restricted Area Permit, a minimum of two trekkers, a registered agency and a licensed guide, plus the Manaslu Conservation Area permit. If you are combining Tsum with the Manaslu Circuit you also carry the Manaslu RAP. None of this changed because of the floods — restricted-area permits are being issued normally in Kathmandu. Any "permit disruption" you have read about relates to Langtang and Rasuwa, not Gorkha.

How we run Tsum safely

Tsum is a slow, cultural trek — monasteries, medieval stone villages, and a valley that feels a century removed from the road. We run it with a licensed guide who knows the Budhi Gandaki, plan the drive in with buffer days so a wet, slow road never forces a rushed schedule, and keep the itinerary flexible enough to absorb a lost half-day on the approach. The walking itself keeps to the valley terraces and stone trails above the river; the hazard we actively manage on this route is the monsoon road, not the high trail.

For the whole-country picture we keep a live Nepal trekking conditions page, the flood event is documented in our Bhote Koshi flash flood report, and the provisional, still-rising figures are on our Nepal floods live updates tracker — we link you there rather than freeze a number into this piece while it is still moving.

Cover photo: Tsephu via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).