Annapurna Circuit Mountain Biking Expedition | Team Australia 2026

Elevation 1,400 m. | No riding. | Overnight in a boutique hotel.

Your crew meets you at Kathmandu airport and transfers you to the hotel. Depending on your arrival time, spend the afternoon settling in, walking Thamel's gear shops and stupas, or building your own rig in our workshop. If you are renting from us, we fit your bike to you and set it up for the terrain rather than handing you a stock size.

In the evening, your lead guide runs the trip briefing, and you eat a proper welcome dinner of Nepali and Newari food together.

Attractions: Thamel's gear district and the old stupa architecture of the Kathmandu valley.

Culture and people: Newar valley culture, and your first meal with the crew who will ride the whole circuit with you.

Elevation: 820 m | Gain: 450 m | Loss: 450 m | Distance: 200 km Overnight: Lakeside hotel, Pokhara

You'll fly this morning, and it's a flight worth waking up for. The route runs the full length of the snow-capped Himalayan chain, and if the skies are clear, you'll spend the whole way with your face against the window. Land in Pokhara, check into your hotel on the shores of Phewa Lake, and drop your bags, because by afternoon, you're back on the bike.

You'll ride out along the ridgelines and singletrack that wrap the Pokhara Valley: twenty-five kilometres, 450 m up and the same back down. It's exactly enough to loosen your legs after the flight, get a feel for your bike, and ease into the trip; nothing here will test you yet. The trails are soft and forgiving, so you can spend more time looking up than watching your front wheel.

• Trail surface: Fast dirt singletrack, red clay trails, and natural rock roll-ins

• Attractions: Machhapuchhre, the Fishtail, reflected in Phewa Lake 

• Culture & people: The Lakeside mountain biking community and Gurung foothill villages

Elevation: 840 m | Gain: 380 m | Loss: 120 m | Distance: 35 km | Overnight: Mountain lodge, Bhulbhule

This morning you'll board a private 4x4 convoy for the drive from Pokhara to Besisahar, the official gateway to the Annapurna Circuit. Once the bikes are unloaded, you start pedalling along the bank of the Marsyangdi, the river that will be your companion for the next four days.

You've got thirty-five kilometres ahead of you today: smooth jeep track, riverbed dirt and a handful of suspension bridges to cross. With only 380 m of climbing in the whole stage, it's a gentle enough day that you'll roll into Bhulbhule with plenty left in the legs for tomorrow.

• Trail surface: Smooth jeep tracks, riverbed dirt paths and suspension bridge crossings

• Attractions: Subtropical waterfalls, lush rice terraces and river gorge views

• Culture and people: Lowland Hindu farming communities and roadside hospitality in Gurung hamlets

Elevation: 1,700 m | Gain: 980 m | Loss: 120 m | Distance: 28 km | Accommodation: Mountain lodge

Today the valley narrows into the dramatic Marsyangdi Gorge, where the riding becomes more technical. The route follows cliffside jeep tracks, rocky singletrack climbs, and suspension bridges crossing above white-water rapids.

This is the first significant climbing day of the tour, with 980 m of elevation gain before reaching Tal. The village sits on an ancient dried lakebed, with a waterfall dropping into the bowl behind it.

• Trail surface: Chunky rock gardens, punchy dirt climbs, and technical singletrack.

• Attractions: The waterfall bowl at Tal village.

• Culture and people: The transition from Hindu culture to Tibetan-influenced Buddhist mountain communities, with prayer flags appearing at village entrances.

Elevation: 2,670 m | Gain: 1,050 m | Loss: 80 m | Distance: 22 km | Overnight: Mountain lodge, Chame

This is the biggest climbing day of the circuit. One thousand and fifty metres up, eighty back down, over just 22 km. There is nowhere to hide on this one.

What you get for it is the best transition on the trip. The subtropical growth thins out and vanishes, dense pine forest takes over, and the air turns crisp and cold and properly alpine. The riding switches with it: punchy technical ascents over rock steps and roots, then smooth granite slabs you can roll straight across, then fast bench trail running through the trees on firm mountain dirt.

You'll pass the organic apple orchards at Brathang with Lamjung Himal standing over them, and ride through Manangi and Gurung timber harvesting villages. When you come to the ancient mani prayer wheels, keep them on your left. It matters to the people who live here, and it costs you nothing.

• Trail surface: Rock step and root climbs, granite slab rolls, and firm bench trail through pine forest

• Attractions: Brathang's apple orchards beneath Lamjung Himal, ancient mani prayer wheels

• Culture and people: Manangi and Gurung timber harvesting villages

Elevation: 3,200 m | Distance: 21 km | Gain: 680 m | Loss: 150 m | Accommodation: Mountain lodge

Today's ride takes you beneath Paungda Danda, a towering curved rock face that rises 1,500 m above the valley floor. It is one of the most striking landmarks on the Annapurna Circuit and a popular place to stop.

The trail is more forgiving than yesterday, following flowing forest singletrack, quiet pine-needle paths, and open jeep tracks as the valley widens into high-alpine terrain. As you gain elevation, the thinner air becomes more noticeable.

After reaching Pisang, there is time to visit the ancient stone fort above Upper Pisang and the nearby gompa. This marks the heart of Tibetan Buddhist culture along the route, where many riders receive a traditional blessing before continuing towards Thorong La.

• Trail Surface: Flowing forest singletrack, pine-needle paths, and open valley jeep tracks.

• Attractions: The towering granite wall of Paungda Danda and the ancient stone fort of Upper Pisang.

• Culture & People: Deep Tibetan Buddhist culture; visit Upper Pisang Gompa for a traditional Buddhist pre-pass blessing.

Elevation: 3,540 m | Gain: 850 m | Loss: -c510 m | Distance: 25 km | Overnight: Mountain lodge, Manang

The crown jewel. If you only remember one riding day from this trip, it'll be this one.

It opens with a hard switchback climb up to Ghyaru, a stone village stacked onto the high line above the valley. You get to the top, turn around, and there they are, Annapurna II, III, and IV, standing across the gorge at your eye level. Not above you. Level with you.

Then comes the traverse. The trail from Ghyaru through Ngawal is a natural bench cut into the mountainside, and honestly, it rides like something a trail builder would want credit for: technical rock step downs, tight switchbacks, long fast stretches of alpine flow. It's narrow, it's loose in places, and the exposure is real. That's exactly why riders who know what they're doing pick this route over the valley road.

Twenty-five kilometres, 850 m up, 510 m back down, through stone villages that have stood a thousand years, past stone archways the Manangi trading families built back when this was a trade route, not a trail.

• Trail surface: Technical rock step downs, tight switchbacks and long stretches of alpine flow on a narrow mountainside bench trail 

• Attractions: Ghyaru village and its eye-level views of Annapurna II, III and IV; ancient Manangi trade archways 

• Culture and people: Stone villages of the high Manang valley, standing for a thousand years

Elevation 3,540 m | Distance 15 km | Ganin: +300 m | Loss: -300 m | Mountain lodge

You are not resting today. You are adapting. This is the day that decides how the pass goes.

In the morning you ride up, either to the Chongkor viewpoint or onto the glacial moraine above Gangapurna Lake, on moraine singletrack and loose scree, and you make your lungs work at altitude. Then you come back down and sleep at exactly the height you woke up at. Three hundred metres up, three hundred straight back down. Climb high, sleep low. It is old advice because it works.

Above you are the icefalls of Gangapurna and Annapurna III and a glacial lake the colour of turquoise. Your guide takes the rest of the day for skills work at altitude, which is a polite way of saying you find out how differently a bike handles when there is a third less oxygen in the air.

Manang itself is worth your afternoon: cobblestone streets, horsemen and yak herders, and a town that has been trading up here for a very long time.

• Trail Surface: Moraine singletrack and loose scree trails.

• Attractions: Turquoise glacial lakes and towering icefalls of Gangapurna and Annapurna III.

• Culture & People: Interact with local Himalayan horsemen and yak herders in Manang’s historic cobblestone center.

Elevation: 4,050 m, 4,450 m or 4,880 m | Gain: 510 m, 910 m or 1,340 m | Distance: 10 to 18 km | Overnight: Mountain lodge, Yak Kharka / Thorong Phedi / High Camp

Above Manang the trees stop. Everything past that point is rain shadow: barren, wind-scoured, and far more Tibet than Nepal.

The trail narrows to alpine singletrack and tilts up. Today is low-gear pedalling broken by short hike-a-bike pushes across scree fields, with suspension bridges hung over glacial gorges. Blue sheep graze the slopes above the trail, and Himalayan griffon vultures work the thermals over the desert canyons.

How far you go is your guide's call, made in the morning based on the weather and on how the group is breathing. Yak Kharka at 4,050 m is the cautious option. High Camp at 4,880 m makes tomorrow shorter. Either way, the climbing to the pass adds up to the same in the end.

The lodges up here are run by people living at the edge of where anyone can live. Dinner is early and so is bed, because tomorrow starts at four.

• Trail surface: Narrow alpine singletrack, scree field hike-a-bike sections and high suspension bridges over glacial gorges

• Attractions: Blue sheep on the slopes, Himalayan griffon vultures over the desert canyons

• Culture and people: Remote high-altitude lodges at the edge of livable elevation

Elevation 5,416 m down to 3,800 m | 22 km | +536 m to +1,366 m / -1,616 m | Lodge in Muktinath

The queen stage.

You leave at 4:00 am in the dark and the cold. The last 5 km to the pass cannot be ridden by anybody, so you push and you carry, and the summit porters take the bikes on the steepest of it. It is subzero, it is slow, and it is the hardest thing on this trip.

Then you come over the top at 5,416 m, into the prayer flags, with your bike.

And then you get the reason you came. Sixteen hundred and sixteen metres of continuous descent, one of the longest singletrack drops on earth. Steep switchbacks off the top, loose-over-hard rock that keeps you honest, scree bowls, and then fast alpine singletrack running all the way down into Muktinath. The landscape changes underneath you as you go, out of the snow and into the red and ochre desert of the old Tibetan kingdom of Mustang.

Muktinath is one of the few places on earth sacred to two religions at once. Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists both come here, for the 108 eternal water spouts and for the natural gas flame that burns over water. You will have ridden 22 km and earned the right to sit and look at it.

• Trail Surface: Sub-zero snow/scree push upward; steep, loose-over-hard rock switchbacks and mega-flow descents downward.

• Attractions: Standing at 5,416m with your bike; dramatic landscape contrast as you enter the Tibetan kingdom of Mustang.

• Culture & People: Sacred Muktinath temple complex, venerated by both Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists for its 108 eternal water spouts and natural gas flame.

Elevation 2,670 m | 32 km | +250 m / -1,380 m | Lodge in Marpha

A short climb out of Muktinath over the Lubra pass, and then the best-kept secret on the circuit.

The Lubra valley is a remote canyon that circuit traffic never touches, and it rides like a bike park nobody built: sweeping natural earth berms, high-speed wall rides and dry riverbed rock gardens, with 1,380 m of descent to spend across 32 km. Loose alpine singletrack up top, dry canyon sand through the middle, then riverbed gravel that simply keeps flowing.

On the way through, you pass Lubra itself, one of the few untouched villages of the ancient Bon religion, before dropping onto the floor of the Kali Gandaki gorge.

• Trail Surface: Loose alpine singletrack, dry canyon sand, and riverbed gravel flow.

• Attractions: The untouched, ancient Bon religion village of Lupra and the dramatic Kali Gandaki gorge floor.

• Culture & People: Thakali village culture in Marpha, famous for flat-roofed stone architecture and traditional apple brandy distillery.

Elevation 2,670 m down to 1,190 m | 42 km ride plus 96 km drive | +120 m / -1,600 m | Pokhara hotel

The longest riding day, and the last one on dirt. Forty-two kilometres with 1,600 m of descent in them.

You ride down the deepest river gorge in the world with Dhaulagiri (8,167 m) on one side and Annapurna I (8,091 m) on the other, both over 8,000 m, both in view. It is fast technical singletrack, natural rock gardens, loose gravel, flowing pine forest trails, and suspension bridges strung over the Kali Gandaki with the river roaring underneath. Rupse waterfall comes off the cliff on the way down.

Then Tatopani, which means hot water, and it is exactly what it sounds like. The bikes get locked up for the last time, and you lower two weeks of riding into natural geothermal pools on the riverbank, with lunch afterwards.

The 4x4s take you and the bikes back to Pokhara, 96 km via Beni and the Baglung highway, three and a half to four and a half hours through lowland Thakali and Magar country.

• Trail Surface: Loose gravel, technical rock gardens, forest singletrack detours, and unpaved mountain roads.

• Attractions: Sweeping 8,000m peak views, Rupse Waterfall, Kali Gandaki Gorge, and Tatopani hot springs.

• Culture & People: Lowland Thakali and Magar communities; geothermal relaxation and warm roadside hospitality.

Elevation 820 m | Optional ride up to 22 km | Pokhara hotel

This day is in the itinerary for one reason: so that bad weather on the pass can never end your trip. If the crossing went to plan, it is simply a day you have earned.

Sleep in. Book the deep-tissue sports massage, because your legs will want it. Send the riding kit to the laundry. Clean or box your bike with the mechanics. If you genuinely want to ride, there is smooth lakeside road and gentle dirt out there, up to 22 km of it, at the pace of someone with nothing left to prove.

The afternoon is Lakeside Pokhara: cafes, the lake, boats out on the water, hand-crafted souvenirs to take home.

The evening is the Expedition Farewell Dinner and Certificate Ceremony, with the guides, the mechanics and the drivers who got you around the Annapurna massif. It is the best night of the trip, and it is not close.

• Trail Surface: Smooth asphalt lakeside road or gentle dirt recovery paths.

• Attractions: Lakeside Pokhara, Phewa Lake boating, and local artisan markets.

• Culture & People: Vibrant urban Nepali culture and celebration feast with your local guides and mechanics.

Elevation: 1,400 m | No riding today | Overnight: N/A (departure day)

The morning flight takes you back to Kathmandu, and it's worth getting a window seat one more time: the Himalaya is out there for the whole crossing, and after thirteen days on the ground looking up at these peaks, seeing them laid out below you hits differently.

Back in the city, there's time to breathe before your flight home. Our mechanics take your bike apart and box it properly for the journey, so you don't have to think about it. That leaves you free to wander Thamel for an hour or two, pick up the last souvenirs, grab a coffee that isn't instant, and let the trip settle in before we run you to the airport.