Manaslu: bridges washed away, expeditions fly by helicopter

What happened? At dawn on September 6, 2026, after a night's rain, the Therang Khola river near Namrung (Gorkha district) overflowed. Two suspension bridges between valleys, several houses and two small hydroelectric power stations were swept away. The ring around Manaslu and the approach to Larke Pass (5106 m) were torn apart. The district administration asked to postpone the trekking. No deaths were reported in this area. This is a monsoon flood, not a glacial lake outburst flood, as happened two weeks earlier in Rasuva.

What about the pass? Commercial ascents of the eight-thousander have not stopped: most groups fly by helicopter to the village of Samagaon and from there go to the base camp. On September 9, residents of the Chumanuwri village council demolished a temporary wooden bridge and cleared the old trail; local authorities declared the route passable again. The Gorkha district did not lift the advice to postpone the hikes: the logs are unlikely to withstand the next rise in water, rains were still expected.

On the mountain. Nepal's tourism department has issued a record 422 foreign permits to climb Manaslu this fall (the previous high was 404 in 2022). With Nepalese staff, the base camp is the second largest in the country after Everest. The railings to Camp 3 are already up, but after a week of rain, the slope is overloaded with fresh snow; first summit attempts are postponed until around September 19-20.