Instead of taking the valley north directly to Thorong la you can continue the main valley to the west and have a side trek to Tilicho lake. Dont believe some old leaflets writing that it is a one or two day trek, they where written when there was a path leading allong the river. This was washed away in 1997 and will not be repaired. Ideal would be if you allow yourself 3 1/2 days from Manang. First you have to go for about 3 hours to the wonderful village of Kagbeni, a village still in the old tibetan style. From there you reach in one day Tilicho base camp lodge. First you pass a nice Gompa, then a yakherders hut. Shortly after the hut there are two trails. The safe one climbs up for some hundert meters to the ridge, only to go down again ~ 600 m to the lodge. The other one is continuing more or less at the same lever but is passing on very step slopes of loose gravels. Considering the benefiting aspect of climbing on 4700m for you aclimatization and the saftety I would recommend the upper way. From the lodge its another 4-5 hours to the lake, wich is situated at 5000m below Tilicho peak. Count some hours to strol around and enjoy this exceptional site and you have enough time to go back to the the lodge. Going to the lake and back the same day to khangsar is possible, but you will not have the time and spirit to enjoy this magic place. People I met, who tried this could not reach Khangsar at time and had to stay a whole night outside.

After tilicho lake, you aclimatization will be probably perfect, (as long you have not got problems), so you can go straight from Khangsar to Thorong Phedi in one day and Thorong la will be just a nice walk!

View from Manang to the “grande barierre”

the village of Khangsar at 3700 m

On the way to tilicho lake

 The “grand barriere” is a rigde full of ice. from the black mountain Khangsr kang in the backround is leading direktly to the Annapurna I.

Khangsar Kang can also be seen from annapurna sanctuary.

Tilicho lake (5000m) in october

Tilicho lake in december, there was a stormy and icy wind  at -15°C, so that we just could stay for some minutes.

It is not possible to go around the edges of the lake. One has to climb up to 5400m to go north of a big wall. To cross tilicho lake into the kali gandaki valley is a full scale alpine expedition and you need a tent, stowe and food for 3 days.

There  are two possible passes from Tilicho lake to Jomsom, the mesokanto la wich unfortuonally leads to a forbidden military training area and a new trail wich i call the tilicho tourist la. From there you can have a look far into tibet and mustang.

An excellent website for Tilicho Lake is from Per Löwdin from Norway