The Manaslu Circuit is Nepal's quietest great circuit, taking a ten-day anticlockwise loop around the world's eighth-highest mountain through valleys that have remained off the main trekking circuit despite being on the permit system since 1991. I walked it in mid-October with a single guide and no porter, carrying a pack that weighed fourteen kilograms by the end of the first resupply and eleven by the time we crossed Larkya La at 5,106 metres. The passes are a small industry of permit checking and the teahouses are more variable than on Annapurna: some are run by families who have been in the hospitality business for three generations, some by young entrepreneurs who learned their English from trekkers and are aggressively expanding their charging points and menu lamination. The altitude above four thousand metres is where the circuit earns its reputation. The final approach to the pass involves five hours of darkness broken only by head torches and the sound of ice cracking somewhere higher up the ridge.
