Annapurna Base Camp Trek in May

Walking is fast and the ground is dry for most of the month. What changes is the schedule. Getting to the day's lodge by early afternoon stops being a nicety and becomes the plan, because being on the exposed section above Deurali during a May thunderstorm is unpleasant and occasionally worse than that. Early starts, short lunches.

The forest between Bamboo and Himalaya greens up thickly and, in the last week of May, gets its first leeches. They are not the plague they become in July, but if you walk in late May in wet conditions you will pick some up on the calves. Salt or a lighter deals with them and long socks reduce the count.

Snow is entirely absent from the route by May other than the permanent ice inside the Sanctuary. The moraine walk to base camp is at its easiest, and there is real wildflower colour on the slopes above Machhapuchhre Base Camp that no other month offers.

The drop from April is steep and it happens fast, usually in the first ten days. By mid-May the two lodges in the Sanctuary have space most nights and the trail feels like your own again. Every lodge stays open through May, and prices, service and menus are unchanged from peak season.

Roads remain good for most of May, with the first pre-monsoon rain occasionally causing minor delays on the Pokhara to trailhead stretch late in the month. Pokhara is noticeably quieter than April and hotel booking is easy again. Nothing about May access is difficult.