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.
The best 6,000 m peak on the Annapurna side of Nepal, and the one most people have never heard of. A PD+ climb built inside the Annapurna Circuit — high route to Ngawal, the summit at 6,419 m, then out over the Thorong La.
A one-hour scenic charter over the Annapurna foothills with a landing at 3,500 to 3,800 m — fifteen to twenty minutes standing on a Himalayan hillside with the rotor stopped and a cup of tea, in absolute silence. The short helicopter option.
A tandem paraglide flown alongside a trained bird of prey that finds the thermals for you and comes to your gloved hand in mid-air. Invented in Pokhara, offered effectively nowhere else, and set up to fund vulture conservation.
The hardest river we run and the one experienced rafters come to Nepal for — four days of steep, technical, continuous class IV and IV+ below Manaslu, with almost no flat water to recover in. Not a beginner's river, and we do not sell it as one.
The steepest river commercially rafted in Nepal — 26 km over two days at fifteen metres per kilometre, a continuous staircase of class IV and IV+ packed so tightly that one day here holds more whitewater than three on an easier river.
The original bungee in Nepal and still the benchmark — a straight 160 m drop from a purpose-built suspension bridge over the Bhote Koshi gorge, run by New Zealand-trained jump masters with a twenty-five-year safety record.
Farm tracks, dry riverbeds and forest trails around Hemja and the Seti gorge — the Pokhara valley a few kilometres from the lakeside strip and completely different in character. Automatic quads, no licence needed, and a practice loop first.
The gentlest of Nepal's commercially rafted rivers — warm, clear, class II–III through a jungle gorge north of Pokhara, with long calm stretches where you can swim beside the raft. The right first river, and the guides let everyone paddle properly.
Fifty kilometres of river over two days, and a night camped on a sand beach in the middle of it. Class III rapids from Charaudi, then an easier second day to Kuringhat with swimming and a slow float out — and the camp is what people remember.
Pokhara sits in a bowl with hills on every side, and each gives a different angle on the Annapurnas. One day links five of them — Sarangkot at dawn, Kahun Danda, Pumdikot, the Peace Pagoda and Begnas Lake.
The closest thing to flying yourself — a two-seat open microlight with an unobstructed view in every direction. Fifteen minutes over Phewa Lake, thirty to the Sarangkot ridge, or sixty north to the Annapurna wall at 3,500 m.
Two of the trans-Himalaya's most important Hindu pilgrimage sites in one morning. Damodar Kunda takes a fortnight of camping across restricted country on foot; by helicopter it is forty minutes from Muktinath, with landings at both.