Mardi Himal
Expedition 2026

My phone alarm erupts with several loud bleeps; I'd foolishly left it under my pillow the night before. I grab it quickly and kill the noise before it wakes the whole tea house. It's 5am. I'm at High Camp on the Mardi Himal trek, 3,550 metres above sea level, our final stopping point before the push to Mardi Himal Base Camp the following morning. Four days of trekking have brought us here.

I heard the weather before I saw it. Wind was whistling through the roof of the building and cold sleet slapped against the thin, single-glazed window of my room. I pulled the curtain aside and peered out into the pre-dawn dark. The cloud was sitting low and heavy, visibility severely reduced. Sleet was pouring from the sky, not quite rain, not quite snow, but a hundred metres higher up the mountain, I knew it would be falling as thick, wet snow.

Somewhere in the tea house, eleven clients were beginning to stir. So too were my fellow trek leader and business partner Stevie, our two Nepali guides, and thirteen trekking assistants. They would all be hoping to lace up their boots and head up the ridgeline to the Mardi Himal Viewpoint at 4,200m, and then onward to Base Camp at 4,500m, where I had promised them a panoramic sweep of the Annapurna range and a life-affirming sunrise to mark the hard-earned high point of the expedition.

With sleet hammering at my window, I knew that wasn't on the cards this morning.

Stevie and I would need to fall back on the thing our clients had actually hired us for, not summits or sunrises, but calm, educated, sensible decision-making. The ability to not be swayed by commercial pressure or a narrow idea of what a "successful" trek looks like. Their safety, and their trust, came before any of that. I knocked on Stevie's door. He was already awake and dressed in full Gore-Tex, heading outside to assess the conditions himself. We had decisions to make, and plans B, C and D ready to go.

The Expedition at a Glance

Annapurna Region  ·  Nepal

Duration	8-day trek / 14 days total
Region	Annapurna, Nepal
High Point	Mardi Himal Base Camp, 4,500m
Total Distance	76km over 8 days
Trek Style	Teahouse
Group Size	Up to 14 clients

Mardi Himal sits in the heart of the Annapurna region, and in our view, it offers something the more famous Annapurna Base Camp trek simply cannot: fewer crowds, more dramatic views, and less objective danger from surrounding mountains. We'd take Mardi Himal every time.

The route up follows the established Mardi Himal trail, a well-constructed, achievable ascent. I built our itinerary around a careful acclimatisation schedule that gives every member of the group the best possible chance of reaching their objective, be it viewpoint (4,200m) or Base Camp (4,500m), comfortably and safely. But it's the descent that transforms this from a great trek into something more memorable.

Rather than retracing our steps, we leave the beaten track entirely and drop down through a quiet, less visited valley that feels a world away from the main trekking routes. Terraced farmland, traditional villages, curious livestock and genuinely warm encounters with local communities replace the usual parade of teahouses and tourist trail. Here we get a real, unhurried sense of what life looks like for the families who have called these steep hillsides, deep valleys and extraordinary mountain vistas home for generations.

It is, without question, my favourite trek in the Annapurna region and the one I find myself returning to time and time again with clients.

The Route & Terrain

14 days  ·  Kathmandu to Kathmandu

The expedition begins long before we set foot on a trail. Day one is Kathmandu: sensory overload in the best possible way. The noise, the colour, the smell of incense and street food, the sheer density of life. Day two we explore Boudhanath Stupa and Thamel, with time for kit checks and last-minute shopping.

On day three we board a small plane for the 30-minute flight to Pokhara, and if the clouds are kind, the Himalayan panorama from the window is worth the trip alone. Pokhara is where we meet our guides from 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking, and where the real briefing begins.

• Day 4 Trek begins at Khare, an intentionally short warm-up hike with plenty of ascent to let legs and lungs begin adjusting. We arrive at Thulo Kharka (1,950m) by early afternoon, and there is usually a collective realisation that teahouse living, simple rooms, communal meals and limited showers, suits people rather well.
• Day 5 Deep into forest. Oak, birch, rhododendron and hemlock close in around the trail, mountain views coming and going through breaks in the canopy. A longer day, and by Forest Camp at 2,550m the group is beginning to find its stride.
• Day 6 Short in distance but significant in altitude: 5km with 900m of ascent to Lower Camp at 3,400m. The forest thins, the air cools noticeably, and the scale of what lies ahead starts to reveal itself.
• Day 7 The treeline is left behind entirely. The trail opens onto high alpine meadow, grazing sheep dot the hillside, and the Annapurna range fills the horizon properly for the first time. We push to High Camp at 3,550m, our last overnight stop.
• Day 8 The one everyone has been building towards. The push to Mardi Himal Base Camp at 4,500m, where on a clear morning Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and the sacred unclimbed fin of Machhapuchhare fill the horizon in every direction. There is a particular kind of tired that follows a day like that. The good kind.
• Days 9–11 The descent transforms the trip. Rather than retracing our steps, 1,500m down to the banks of the Mardi River at 1,350m, then winding through traditional villages, terraced fields worked by hand, buffalo, goats, chickens and unhurried rural life. 76km completed. Back to Pokhara.
• Days 12–14 Rest day by Pokhara lake, well-earned and always slightly emotional. Final night in Kathmandu, last-minute shopping, and an emotional goodbye to new friends, with a unanimous "we must come back again."

The Team

11 clients  ·  6 nations  ·  Ages 27–67

Our 2026 Mardi Himal team was a beautiful array of people: different backgrounds, different levels of hiking experience, different ages and different pre-expedition anxieties. Our oldest team member was 67, our youngest 27, with just about every age in between. We had people join us from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, North America and Pakistan. Three men and eight women. In terms of personalities and life experience, this was probably the most varied group Ocean Vertical has taken to the mountains.

As an expedition leader, team dynamics are something I always think carefully about before departure. With limited information, I try to plan room pairings, think about how to create early bonds and consider where friction might appear. With a group this diverse, I wondered how long it would take for everyone to find their footing with each other.

I needn't have worried. Despite their differences, this team blended better than any I can remember. Quickly and naturally, there developed a real mutual respect, a genuine interest in each other's lives back home, quiet support when someone was struggling and wholehearted celebration when it was deserved.

Watching it happen is one of my favourite parts of this job.

By the end, they were a well-oiled, warm and resilient team who took every challenge the mountain threw at them entirely in their stride. A very special group indeed.

The Challenges

Geopolitics, weather and the art of Plan B

In some ways, the challenge began before the expedition even started.

Many of our clients had booked this trip 12 to 18 months in advance. Two weeks before departure, with bags half packed and flights confirmed, the geopolitical situation in the Middle East deteriorated sharply, airspace closed and with it, the vast majority of our flights. Around 80% of the team, including Stevie and myself, were booked to travel via the UAE.

What followed was a stressful fortnight of rebooking, rerouting and problem solving. People rearranged travel plans via Turkey, Delhi, Bangkok and Hong Kong. The team scrambled, adapted and showed up in Kathmandu ready to go.

They had all put a lot on the line to be there, and they knew it of each other.

The second challenge was the weather, which is where this report began.

On our summit day, conditions on the upper mountain made Stevie and me reassess our plans entirely. We stripped back any unnecessary risk and made the call to move the group up to just over 4,100m rather than pressing on to Base Camp at 4,500m. Visibility was poor, snow was falling and the mountains were largely hidden. We turned the group around well before it became necessary, let alone critical.

To the team, it felt like a proper adventure into snowy mountain conditions. To Stevie and me, it was a well-managed, low-risk foray up the hill. That gap between how it felt and how controlled it actually was is, I think, exactly what good mountain leadership looks like. The team rallied completely, the mood never dropped and in many ways that day became one of the most talked-about of the whole trip.

The perfect outcome for all.

The Highlights

The moments that stay with you

There were so many it is hard to know where to begin.

The evenings spent laughing until we cried. Gordon, bless him, who packed tiddlywinks in his kit bag and proceeded to preside over some fiercely competitive rounds in the teahouse. The moment, different for each person and on a different day, when a team member hit their emotional wall, worked through it quietly, and came out the other side visibly lighter and more grateful to be there. I watched it happen again and again on this trip, and it never gets old.

Perhaps because the summit day views were taken from us by the weather, this team became particularly attuned to the smaller details.

The birdlife, so vivid and so different from anything we experience at home, stopped people mid-stride more than once. And the encounters with local people, small moments of connection over a shared meal or a few words of Nepali attempted badly but warmly received, added up to something that felt far more meaningful than any panoramic view.

But the highlight for me, and I suspect for most of the team, was the time spent with 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking. Founded in Pokhara in 1994 by three sisters, Lucky, Dicky and Nicky Chhetri, 3 Sisters is a pioneering organisation that trains and employs female trekking guides across the Himalayas, at a time when no one thought such a thing was possible. Our two lead guides were Sarmila and Leela, both of whom I now count as genuine friends. This was my sixth trek alongside these two remarkable women, and I hope there are many more to come.

Alongside Sarmila and Leela, we were joined by eight trekking assistants, young women who had just completed their basic guide training and for whom this was their first proper trek with foreign clients. These are not porters. They are members of our team: they trek alongside us, teach us Nepali words, attempt to teach us to dance, share their stories and, in doing so, offer a window into Nepal that no guidebook can provide. Watching them grow in confidence, skill and sheer enjoyment over our eight days together is, without question, my favourite part of these expeditions.

Bringing groups here each year matters beyond the experience it creates for our clients. It provides these young women with meaningful, respected employment and puts them on a path to independence and empowerment that very few women in Nepal get to travel. That feels worth coming back for, every time.

Final Thoughts

On mountains, time and what matters

Nepal expeditions are genuinely hard to put into words. I know how that sounds, but I mean it. Everyone who comes on one of these trips, myself included, every single time, goes through something that operates on multiple levels simultaneously.

There is physical challenge, always overcome. There are moments of real awe. There are things that humble you and things that make you laugh until you cannot breathe. A lot happens out there, and not all of it is visible on the outside.

I usually resist the phrase "personal journey of discovery," but I am going to use it here, because I cannot think of a better one. That is what this is. Every time. For everyone.

And here is the thing: it never gets old. I have had those moments of genuine discovery on two Everest summits and alone on the ice skiing to the South Pole. I still get them, every single time I go back to the Himalayas. There is something about these mountains, and the experience of moving through them slowly, on foot, with a good team around you, that does something to a person that is very difficult to replicate anywhere else.

We have a short amount of time on this earth. Investing it in experiences that genuinely change how you see yourself and the world around you is, in my view, about as well as it can be spent.

We hope to see you in Nepal.