Yes as of 9 September 2026, the Manaslu trekking route is open.
The District Administration Office in Gorkha issued a public notice that day lifting the restriction it had imposed three days earlier, after repair work on the damaged trail and bridge sections around Namrung in Chumnubri Rural Municipality ward 4. The notice was signed by Assistant Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma, the same official who signed the closure. The Nepal Tourism Board circulated it the same day.
Three days is a remarkably fast turnaround for a route that had been physically severed. It is worth understanding exactly what was rebuilt, because the answer changes how you should plan.
What happened, and how fast it was fixed
At around 3:30 on the morning of Sunday 6 September, a flash flood came down the Therang Khola at Namrung. Debris had dammed the stream near its source; when the blockage gave way, the water released all at once.
It took out the iron bridge linking wards 4 and 2 of Chumnubri Rural Municipality, and a suspension bridge over the Budhi Gandaki on the route from Ghap toward Namrung. Two micro-hydropower plants went with them, cutting power and communications across the area. Homes were destroyed. No one was killed residents saw the water rising and moved uphill.
The district administration suspended the Manaslu Circuit and the Larke Pass the same morning. The Manaslu Conservation Area Project issued its own matching advisory. Hundreds of trekkers already above the break were stranded on the far side.
Then the villages rebuilt it themselves. Pema Gyalpo Lama, ward chairperson for Chumnubri–4, told Ratopati that locals put temporary crossings over the flooded streams at Namrung, and cut a bypass above Suksum where the Budhi Gandaki had taken both the suspension bridge and a section of the road.
“Open” means temporary crossings
This is the part most reopening coverage will skip, and it is the part that matters on the ground.
The bridges that were washed away have not been replaced. What exists at Namrung and Suksum are locally built temporary crossings and a cut-in bypass, good enough for the administration to certify the route as walkable and lift the restriction. Permanent replacement of a suspension bridge over the Budhi Gandaki is a season’s work, not a week’s.
Practically, that means two things. Temporary crossings are vulnerable to the next high-water event, and the monsoon has not finished Nepal’s average withdrawal date is 2 October, per the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. And a second closure at the same spot is entirely possible if another surge comes down the Therang.
So the route is open, and it is open on infrastructure that was not there ten days ago. Trek it with a guide who is in daily contact with the region, not one working from a fixed itinerary printed in July.
What we have not confirmed
Three things remain open at the time of writing, and we are not going to state them as settled.
Whether the Manaslu Conservation Area Project has formally lifted its own advisory. MCAP issues the permits, and its position is separate from the district administration’s. Ask your operator to show you MCAP’s current status, not just the DAO notice.
Whether the notice explicitly names the Larke Pass. The closure order covered the Manaslu route and the Larke Pass together; the lifting notice addresses the damaged Namrung section. Functionally the route is open, but the 5,106-metre pass has its own weather and snow conditions that no district notice speaks to.
The condition of the trail between Ghap and Namrung beyond the crossings themselves. Flood corridors leave unstable slope above and below the water line.
The road to the trailhead is the harder problem
The trail is open. Getting to it is the question nobody is answering.
The Manaslu Circuit starts with a drive from Kathmandu to Machha Khola, through Dhading. On 30 August, roughly 70 metres of the Prithvi Highway at Krishnabhir in Dhading collapsed into the Trishuli, with another 120 metres cracked, cutting the Mugling–Kathmandu section entirely. The Department of Roads has cut a temporary track above the collapse and wants traffic on it within about two weeks, but cracks have since appeared above the work site.
If your operator quotes you the standard drive time to Machha Khola, that number is from before 30 August. Ask them, in writing, what route the vehicle will take and how long it will take today.
(For the wider picture, see our page on whether it is safe to travel to Nepal right now, and our Rasuwa corridor access page for daily road status.)
If you are booked this autumn
Departing in the next two weeks. Ask your operator for a dated condition report from someone physically in the region — not a booking-page reassurance. Confirm the Namrung crossings were used by a group within the last 48 hours. Confirm the road plan to Machha Khola. Build in two spare days.
Departing in October. You are in a better position than a September departure. The monsoon should have withdrawn, water levels drop, and permanent repair work has time to progress. Keep the operator conversation going rather than assuming today’s status holds.
Already cancelled. Worth reopening the conversation. Autumn Manaslu permits are usually hard to come by, and this year they will not be.
What the permits still require
None of this changes Manaslu’s restricted-area rules, which are the strictest of any teahouse trek in Nepal.
You need a Restricted Area Permit, which can only be issued through an authorised trekking agency you cannot obtain one independently. A minimum of two trekkers is required to issue it. A licensed guide is mandatory for the full route. You also need conservation area permits for the Manaslu side and the Annapurna side, since the circuit exits at Dharapani, plus a rural municipality entry fee.
Verification note: permit fee figures circulating on operator sites vary. Confirm current amounts with the Nepal Tourism Board or your agency before budgeting.
Who to call
These numbers are from the district administration’s own notice.
- District Administration Office, Gorkha: 9856057777, 9856057780
- District Emergency Operations Centre, Gorkha: 1234, 9748430200, 9867173694
- District Police Office, Gorkha: 100, 9856055555, 9856061190
- Armed Police Force Nepal, Gorkha: 9851272333
If conditions change while you are on the trail, these are the people who will know first, and they are the authority that will close the route again if it needs closing.
