Annapurna Base Camp Trek in April

The whole route walks well. Snow is gone from the gorge, the trail into the Sanctuary is bare and fast, and the final approach from Machhapuchhre Base Camp to Annapurna Base Camp takes the two hours it is supposed to take rather than the three and a half it takes in February. Most people underestimate how much this changes the day.

April is also the month the trek shows its actual difficulty, which is not altitude. Base camp is 4,130m, low enough that serious altitude sickness is uncommon, but the ascent profile from Chhomrong at 2,117m is fast, and the staircases are relentless in both directions. The descent below Chhomrong on the way out punishes knees more than the climb in punishes lungs. Poles help more here than on most treks in Nepal.

The rhododendron continues above Chhomrong through the first half of the month, higher and later than the Ghorepani stands. It is a thinner display than the March forest but it comes with Annapurna South standing behind it, which the lower forest does not give you.

April is peak season and the Sanctuary is where you feel it. Machhapuchhre Base Camp and Annapurna Base Camp have a fixed number of beds and no alternative village to overflow into, so on the busiest April nights people share rooms, sleep in dining rooms, or walk back down to Deurali. This is the single most common April complaint and it is entirely predictable.

The fix is unglamorous: go with an operator who books the two high lodges ahead and does not improvise. Below Chhomrong there is enough lodge capacity that April never feels tight, and the villages are at their best, with full menus, warm dining rooms and every room open.

Roads are dry and busy. Pokhara is at its annual peak in April, so hotels and vehicles need booking in advance rather than on arrival. The absence of any flight leg keeps April here far less stressful than the Everest region, where the same weeks see Lukla services running from Ramechhap and delays stacking up across the season.