Mardi Himal Trek

None at all. There is no rope, no crampons and no glacier anywhere on this route. The upper ridge is a footpath that happens to have a lot of air on either side of it, and if that idea bothers you, the Upper Viewpoint at 4,200 m is a perfectly good place to stop.

Fit enough for four to six hours of walking on consecutive days, plus one morning of eight to nine hours. If you can manage a five hour hill walk at home and then get up and do two hours the next day, you are ready for this one.

It is one of the best, and better than most of the routes marketed that way. It is short, the highest bed is only 3,580 m, and you stand under a 6,993 m mountain at close range. What it asks for is six days of steady walking rather than any particular skill.

Most people get to the Upper Viewpoint at 4,200 m. Rather fewer go the last hour to Base Camp at 4,500 m, and the reasons are almost always weather or the clock rather than fitness. On a clear morning the two views are the same mountains at slightly different distances.

No upper one. We take children from ten with a parent, which is younger than we would accept on an Everest trek, because the altitude here is modest and you can be off the ridge in an afternoon. Walking history matters far more than age.

Narrow in places, with the ground falling away on both sides, and it is a path throughout. In clear weather most people find it exhilarating. In cloud or on fresh snow it is a different proposition, and that is the morning your guide may turn the group round.

It is uncommon here because you sleep no higher than 3,580 m, but the climb from Low Camp to Base Camp is fast and mild symptoms do turn up at High Camp. We take your oxygen saturation every evening from Low Camp onward. Descent is quick on this route, which is the main thing in its favour.

Between −2°C and −7°C at night in the trekking seasons, and down near −12°C in January. Days on the trail sit between 11°C and 18°C and feel warm in the sun. No bedroom on this trail is heated, at any altitude, and that is the gap the sleeping bag exists to fill.

A policy good for trekking to 5,000 m that pays for a helicopter and for getting you home. Show us the certificate before we drive out of Pokhara. A rescue from this ridge costs $2,500 upwards and no helicopter takes off without a guarantee that somebody is paying.

Small, plain and fewer than you expect. Plywood rooms with twin beds, a dining room with one stove, shared toilets, and at High Camp five or six lodges in total. It is a rung simpler than the Poon Hill side, which is the price of the trail being quiet.

As far as Deurali, yes, and properly plumbed. Above Forest Camp it becomes a bucket of hot water for a few dollars, and at High Camp there may be none at all, because the water came up the hill on somebody's back. Two days of wet wipes and nobody minds.

NTC reaches High Camp on a good day and Ncell struggles above the forest. Wifi is free or a couple of dollars in the villages, patchy at Forest Camp and unreliable above it. Buy the SIM in Pokhara, since you cannot register one on the trail.

Yes, for $2 to $4 a device, and everything above Low Camp runs on solar panels. Two overcast days in a row and there is nothing to give anybody. Carry a power bank of at least 10,000 mAh and sleep with it rather than leaving it out in the cold.

Far less than Poon Hill or the sanctuary, and it is busier every year. In October the ridge is genuinely busy and High Camp fills by mid afternoon, which is why we walk early that month. In late November or March you can have the forest largely to yourself.

Your duffel goes to a porter shared with one other trekker, 15 kg between you. You carry a daypack of 5 to 7 kg with water, a warm layer, waterproofs and the day's snacks. There is no flight allowance to worry about on this trek.

An ACAP permit at NPR 3,000, about $22, from the National Trust for Nature Conservation, and a TIMS card at NPR 2,000, about $15, through a registered agency. Both are inside your trek price. A licensed guide has been compulsory in this conservation area since April 2023.

Most nationalities buy it at Kathmandu airport on landing: $30 buys 15 days and $50 buys 30, cash only. Complete the online form in the fortnight before you fly and the queue gets shorter. Take a photograph, and make sure your passport has six months to run.

$150 to $250 changed into rupees, in small notes. That covers drinks, charging, hot water, wifi and tips for six days. The last ATM is in Pokhara and no lodge on the ridge takes a card or has any way to give you change for a large note.

Fly 25 minutes from Kathmandu to Pokhara, or take the coach down the Prithvi Highway in six to eight hours. From Pokhara it is 27 km and about an hour by road to Kande, where you start walking. No mountain airstrip is involved at any point.

For October, four to six weeks ahead, because High Camp beds are the bottleneck rather than flights. For every other month, ten days is comfortable and we have put people on this ridge with three days' notice.

Yes, and it is easy on a trek this short. Start from Pokhara and drop Kathmandu, add a night at Badal Danda so the Base Camp day is shorter, walk out through Landruk instead of Siding, or put Poon Hill on the front. From five people your own dates cost the same as a group departure.