Mardi Himal is a trekking peak standing at 5,587 metres (18,330 ft) in the Annapurna region of Nepal.
Practical guides to trekking in Nepal — permits, costs, seasons, altitude and packing — written by the guides who walk these trails.
A twelve-day trek up the Budhi Gandaki and off it — a steep climb into a hanging valley above Bihi to a Nyingma retreat monastery with meditation caves in the cliffs. Short, culturally rich, and visited by a handful of foreigners a year.
Twelve lakes and eighteen meadows in a high basin in Achham — one of the poorest and least visited districts in Nepal. Eleven days, no trekking infrastructure at all, and a week of walking without meeting another visitor.
The great east-to-west traverse of the Nepali trans-Himalaya: 22 days from the Kali Gandaki across the Dolpo plateau to Phoksundo Lake, over five passes, three of them above 5,000 m. The country of The Snow Leopard, almost unchanged.
Twenty days in the most isolated inhabited corner of Nepal — a Tibetan Buddhist enclave closer to Mount Kailash than to any Nepali road, reached by two flights to a district capital with no road link at all. Halji, Til, Jang and the Talung pass.
A pilgrimage trek to a temple on an open ridge at 4,214 m in Bajura, far-western Nepal. Empty for most of the year, filled by tens of thousands of pilgrims for one week each August. Route, flights, camping, cost and when to go.
The trek that starts where the Kathmandu valley ends — out of Sundarijal on foot, no domestic flight, nothing above 3,700 m, and the Buddhist Hyolmo villages of Tarke Ghyang and Sermathang at the end. Seven days, from USD 400.
A walked-in ridge route on the eastern edge of the Annapurnas, with high camps instead of teahouses and a summit day to Rambrong West at 4,384 m — Manaslu, Annapurna II and IV, Lamjung Himal and Machhapuchhre in one sweep.
Fifteen days through Rukum and Rolpa, the districts at the centre of Nepal's Maoist insurgency, on the routes the movement used. Thabang, the Dhorpatan grasslands and Kham Magar villages — a trek about recent history as much as mountains.
Four walking days from one of Nepal's largest traditional Gurung villages to an empty ridge at 3,850 m, with Annapurna II, Annapurna IV, Lamjung Himal and Machhapuchhre directly in front of you. A short, new and almost unvisited Annapurna route.
A wilderness crossing between the Langtang and Manaslu ranges, over the Singla Pass at 4,600 m, within a day's drive of Kathmandu. Thirteen days through Tamang villages and empty high country that almost no trekkers reach. Route, cost and what to expect.
Sixteen days through Nepal's only hunting reserve to a base camp with three 7,000 m peaks in view. A fully camped trek at the western end of the Dhaulagiri massif that most seasons sees a handful of parties. Route, cost, permits and wildlife.
The hardest of Nepal's classic routes: eighteen days around an 8,000 m peak with no teahouses above Dobang, three nights on the Chhonbardan Glacier, and two 5,000 m passes into Hidden Valley. Route, difficulty, cost, kit, and who it actually suits.