Annapurna Circuit Mountain Biking Guided tour

Welcome to Nepal. Our team meets you at Tribhuvan International Airport and transfers you privately to the team hotel in Thamel..

The evening is when the expedition actually begins. We run a thorough trip briefing covering the route, the altitude plan and how the pass day works, then go through bikes. If you have brought your own, we inspect the setup and check it over. If you are riding ours, this is where we dial in fit, saddle height, cockpit and tyre pressure so nothing needs fixing on the trail.

What happens today

• Airport meet and private transfer to Thamel

• Full trip briefing on route, altitude plan and pass day

• Bike setup inspection, or rental fitting and adjustment

• Group dinner with the team

Overnight: Premium boutique or 4/5 star hotel in Thamel, Kathmandu, 1,400 m

Meals: Dinner

We travel from the capital to Pokhara, the hub of our mountain biking operations, either by road or on a short domestic flight depending on the group and the day. Pokhara is where the expedition is actually run from. The afternoon is yours: rest off the travel, take a short spin along the lake to loosen your legs, wander the town, or come to our workshop for a final gear check. Anything that needs sourcing, swapping or adjusting gets sorted today, because from tomorrow morning the nearest bike shop is a long way behind you.

• Overnight: Lakeside boutique hotel, Pokhara, 822 m

• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

The first day on dirt, and we skip the highway tarmac entirely. Instead, we drop straight onto the historic Royal Trek tracks by way of Begnas Lake and Bhorletar. This is humid, low-altitude riding and it is the friendliest terrain of the whole trip. Rolling dirt paths, punchy short climbs that are over before they hurt, and singletrack cutting through terraced Gurung and Brahmin farmland.

You are in Gurung country from here until the high valley, riding through the terraced hillsides and stone villages that define this part of the Annapurna foothills.

Key points along the way

• Begnas Lake and Bhorletar

• The historic Royal Trek tracks, ridden instead of the highway

• Terraced Gurung and Brahmin farmland

• The biggest distance day of the trip, on the gentlest gradients

Terrain: Subtropical dirt tracks, singletrack, short climbs

Overnight: Mountain lodge, Sundar Bazar

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

We start from Sundar Bazar and take a brief asphalt climb up to Besisahar, the traditional gateway to the circuit and the point where most riders and trekkers formally start the loop. From Besisahar, the topography changes character fast. The valley closes in, the surface turns to raw rocky dirt, and we track upstream along the Marsyangdi River gorge with the water running hard below the trail. The waterfalls through this section are large enough that on some of them the spray reaches the track. The climbing figure is modest, but the ground is rough and constantly changing, and this is the day the trip stops feeling like a bike ride in the hills and starts feeling like an expedition into a gorge.

Key points along the way

- Besisahar, the traditional gateway to the circuit

- The Marsyangdi River gorge, ridden upstream

- Massive waterfalls falling beside and across the trail

- The first genuinely rugged surface of the trip

Terrain: Rugged doubletrack, waterfalls, river gorge paths

Overnight: Riverside mountain lodge, Syange

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

The biggest climbing day of the expedition, and the one riders remember in their legs. You gain 1,800 vertical metres, and there is almost no descent to recover on, so this is five to six hours of sustained upward work.

What makes today hard

• The biggest single climbing day of the expedition at +1,800 m

• Almost no descent to recover on

• You cross the 2,000 metre threshold

• Exposed cliffside ledges and steep doubletrack ramps

• Medical monitoring starts today and runs to the end of the trip

Terrain: Rocky river stones, damp pine roots, slate switchbacks

Overnight: Mountain lodge, Chame, 2,670 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Distance: 18 Km
Time:  5 hours Approx.

A deliberately shorter day, and after yesterday you will be glad of it. The altitude is now doing real work on your body, so the itinerary eases off in distance while still gaining height. The riding is some of the most pleasant of the whole trip. Natural pine needle singletrack and old mule trails run through the pine forest above Chame, and the surface is soft, quiet and grippy underneath the tyres, which is a genuine change from the rock and slate of the last two days. Three to four hours in the saddle leaves plenty of the afternoon at the lodge, which is exactly what your body needs at this stage.

What to expect

• A short day by design, to let altitude adaptation keep pace

• Soft pine needle singletrack, quiet under the tyres

• Old mule trails through pine forest

• An early finish and a long afternoon to rest

Terrain: Natural pine needle singletrack, old mule trails

Overnight: Authentic alpine lodge, Upper Pisang

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

This is the day people book the trip for. The climb out of Pisang is a series of tight switchbacks in thin air, and it is honest work, but what it buys you is the best singletrack in Nepal. Bench-cut trail chiselled directly into the mountain slope, narrow, exposed in places, running for kilometres with the full wall of the Annapurna range standing across the valley from you the entire way. It is the kind of riding you plan a trip around.

Why this day matters

• The high trail through Ghyaru and Ngawal, not the valley floor road

• Bench cut singletrack chiselled into the mountain slope, exposed and narrow

• Uninterrupted views across the Annapurna range for kilometres

• Doubles as active acclimatisation, taking you high and bringing you back down to sleep

• One of the best chances on the route to see blue sheep

Terrain: Bench cut alpine singletrack, thin air switchbacks

Overnight: Traditional teahouse, Manang, 3,540 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

An essential rest day, and it is not padding. At 3,540 m, your body needs time for its blood chemistry to catch up with where you have put it, and the days above this point are the ones that decide whether you get over the pass.

We follow the climb high, sleep low protocol with a light hike on foot, either up to Gangapurna Glacier Lake or higher onto the Ice Lake trail, then come back down to sleep in Manang. Walking rather than riding is deliberate, because it loads your lungs without draining your legs.

What happens today

• Light acclimatisation hike on foot to Gangapurna Glacier Lake or Ice Lake

• Full bike hardware check by the mechanic

• Tyre pressures dropped for the ground ahead, brake pads swapped where needed

• Detailed briefing for the pass day, including turnaround criteria

Overnight: Traditional teahouse, Manang, 3,540 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Today you break past 4,000 metres into high alpine tundra. The trees are behind you now, and the landscape opens into bare ridge, rock, and grazing land.

Eleven kilometres is the shortest riding distance of the trip so far, and it will take you four to five hours. That gap between the number and the time is the clearest lesson in what altitude does to a rider: the terrain is not especially technical, the climb is not especially steep, and it is still slow, hard work. The trail narrows into steady exposed singletrack tracing high mountain ridges above the valley floor, past yak pastures still in use.

What to expect

• You cross 4,000 metres today

• Only 11 km, but it takes four to five hours at this altitude

• Narrow exposed singletrack along high mountain ridges

• Grazing yak pastures on the climb

• Pacing matters more today than fitness does

Terrain: Narrow high-line singletrack, alpine ridge trails

Overnight: High alpine teahouse, Yak Kharka, 4,110 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Seven kilometres, four to five hours, and one of the heaviest days on the trip. The distance is almost meaningless up here; what counts is the terrain and the thin air. The main obstacle is a major loose scree slope field where the trail is a narrow cut across ground that genuinely moves under you. It demands complete focus, and it is not a place to be rushing or distracted. From there the route drops across the Jarsang Khola bridge, then turns upward into a steep, grinding climb to Phedi at 4,450 m.

What to expect

• A major loose scree slope field that demands complete focus

• The Jarsang Khola bridge crossing

• A steep, thin-air climb to Phedi at 4,450 m

• The guide decides on the day whether the group pushes on to High Camp at 4,850 m

• The last night before the pass, and the highest you will sleep on the trip

Terrain: Loose scree fields, steep mountain singletrack slopes

Overnight: Alpine mountain refuge, Thorong Phedi 4,450 m or High Camp 4,850 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

The biggest day of the expedition, and the reason most riders come. The climb. A 4:00 am alpine start, by head torch, to get over the top before the fierce mid-morning ridge winds come up. There is no riding in this section and there is no pretending otherwise: it is a rhythmic hike-a-bike effort up steep frozen switchbacks, in the dark, at the thinnest air you will breathe on this trip.

Our local porter team carries the bike frames over the toughest stretches, which is the single thing that decides whether you arrive at the top wrecked or arrive with something left. Reaching the prayer flags at 5,416 m is a profound moment for almost everyone who does it, and there is time built in to stand there.

You arrive at Muktinath, which is one of the most significant shared Hindu and Buddhist sites in the Himalaya, covered in the sacred sites section above.

How the day breaks down

• 4:00 am start by head torch, to get over before the ridge winds build

• Hike a bike up steep frozen switchbacks, with no rideable sections on the climb

• Porters carry the bike frames over the toughest stretches

• Prayer flags at the 5,416 m summit, the highest point of the trip

• Then 1,600 vertical metres down: loose shale and snow at the top, fast high desert singletrack lower down

• Finish at Muktinath at 3,800 m, a drop of over 1,600 m from the pass

Terrain: High alpine scree and snow hike-a-bike, then a massive descent

Overnight: Mountain lodge, Muktinath, 3,800 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

One of the expedition's most rewarding riding days, and completely different in character from everything before the pass. You are now in the Himalayan rain shadow, so the greenery is gone and the light, the colour and the scale all change. From Muktinath we descend through the dramatic Jomsom Valley with Nilgiri, Dhaulagiri and the surrounding peaks filling the sky.

The riding is volcanic ruts, high desert singletrack and stretches of riverbed sand, which is a surface most riders will never have ridden before. With 1,380 metres of descent and only 250 of climbing, today is largely a gravity day.

You choose your line on the morning:

Both options converge toward Marpha, where the day finishes among traditional whitewashed stone houses, apple orchards and narrow flagstone lanes. Marpha is Thakali country, and the village is the surviving architecture of the salt trade that built this valley.

Terrain: Volcanic ruts, high desert singletrack, riverbed sand

Overnight: Traditional lodge, Marpha

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

The last day of riding, and it is a good one. We leave Marpha's apple orchards and descend the western flank of the valley into Lete's fast pine forest singletrack and technical rock gardens. After days of open desert and bare alpine ground, dropping back into trees at speed is a genuine change of pace.

Through this section the trail pinches down between the vertical walls of Dhaulagiri at 8,167 m and Annapurna I at 8,091 m, two eight thousand metre peaks standing on either side of you while you ride the floor between them. This is also the stretch of riverbed where shaligram are found, described in the sacred sites section above.

How the day breaks down

• Descend the western flank of the valley from Marpha

• Lete's fast pine forest singletrack and technical rock gardens

• The gorge narrows between Dhaulagiri, 8,167 m, and Annapurna I, 8,091 m

• A final run down old stone steps into Tatopani

• Soak in the natural hot springs, then a 4.5-hour jeep transit to Pokhara

Terrain: Technical stone steps, fast pine forest singletrack

Overnight: Lakeside boutique hotel, Pokhara, 822 m

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

A much-needed recovery day in Nepal's outdoor capital, and after eleven days on the trail, it is earned. Relax at a lakeside cafe, book a massage, sleep in, or do nothing at all.

For anyone whose legs somehow have more in them, our guides can lead an optional afternoon ride out to the local singletracks around Begnas Lake or into the technical root lines of Rani Ban, the Queen's Forest, on the ridge above town. It is entirely optional, and plenty of riders sensibly skip it.

Optional afternoon rides

• Local singletracks around Begnas Lake

• The technical root lines of Rani Ban, the Queen's Forest

Overnight: Lakeside boutique hotel, Pokhara, 822 m

Meals: Breakfast, dinner

Following breakfast, we take the 25-minute domestic flight back to Kathmandu. The route traces the southern edges of the Annapurna and Manaslu massifs, so on a clear morning you get to look down on the entire loop you just rode around, which is a fitting way to end it.

You arrive in Kathmandu for your international connection home or onward travel.

Meals: Breakfast