Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain, has had a brutal autumn. Four climbers died on the Nepalese peak during the 2026 season, and with metres of fresh snow forecast, guiding companies have pulled the plug well before the usual early-October finish. As one mountaineering site put it: game over.
The trouble started in mid-September. Rope fixers from Nepal's Expedition Operators Association completed the fixed lines to the 26,781-foot summit on September 17 — ahead of schedule — but they reported deep, unstable snow and slides along the way. Veteran guide Mingma G filmed an avalanche on September 16 that swept past Camp III, barely missing tents. Two days later, an avalanche engulfed Camp I at 18,700 feet.
Then came the deaths. On the night of September 20, a slide hit Camp III at 22,000 feet, killing climber Dhrubajyoti Guha and guide Phursemba Sherpa, both 47. The pair had pushed on to the higher camp while six teammates retreated safely to Camp II. Rescuers later dug them out from beneath roughly seven feet of snow. Their deaths brought the season's toll to four: a Singaporean climber died during an acclimatisation rotation on September 17, and a Nepali porter was found dead in his tent at Base Camp earlier in the season.
By September 22, the exodus was on. Acclaimed climber and rescue pilot Simone Moro turned back from Camp III after forecasts showed up to two metres of snow falling across Nepal's big peaks between September 24 and 28. Mingma G's team left Base Camp the next day, 8K Expeditions paused its expedition, and Seven Summits Treks — one of the biggest operators on the mountain — cancelled outright. Makalu Adventure had already scrapped its climb after the fatalities.
The irony is that Manaslu has never exactly hidden its dangerous side. In 2012, an avalanche obliterated Camp III and killed 11 people; extreme skier Hilaree Nelson died there in an avalanche in 2022. One expert once called it 'avalanche central.' Yet the mountain keeps growing in popularity precisely because it's seen as Everest-lite: a genuine 8,000-metre summit with time in the Death Zone, but without K2's technical climbing or Annapurna's terrifying exposure. Nepal's tourism department issued 493 permits for the autumn — almost identical to the record 494 Everest permits sold this spring.
For anyone eyeing the region, the takeaway isn't necessarily 'never go' — it's that Manaslu's reputation as the accessible 8,000er deserves scepticism, and that late-September snowfall in the Himalayas can upend even the best-laid plans. Trekkers considering the Manaslu Circuit should treat weather windows and operator judgement calls as seriously as climbers do.
