Pokhara ridge
At first light there is a knock at the cottage door: bed tea and home-made biscuits, carried to your veranda. Ahead stands Machhapuchhre, 6,993 m (22,940 ft), with the Annapurnas beside it.
Photo: Santosh Ghimire
From Kathmandu
Buddha Air flies this route more than 17 times a day; a morning seat beats the cloud that builds later. Manaslu, the Annapurnas and Machhapuchhre line the right-hand windows. Hold bags are 15 to 20 kg, cabin bags 5 kg.
Photo: Bibash Bibson / Pexels
The lodge
Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge was opened by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1998. On a clear morning Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu, three of the fourteen peaks on earth above 8,000 m, line up across the northern sky.
Photo: Chhabiraj Adhikari / Pexels
On foot
A five-hour walk climbs through farms to Thulakot, 1,250 m (4,100 ft), a boundary fort of the Kaski rajas with a small Bhairav shrine in its ruins, then follows the ridge to Ramchekot, about 1,425 m (4,680 ft), for lunch.
Photo: Martin Skřivánek / Unsplash
06:30, Barahi Ghat
Phewa, 742 m (2,430 ft) above the sea, is usually flat this early. The boatman rows first to Tal Barahi, the island shrine of the goddess Barahi, reached only by boat, then across to the forested south shore.
Photo: Iuliia Dutchak
Why mornings
In spring the wind rises over Phewa after noon and the row back turns into hard work. Early, on a clear day, Machhapuchhre lies on the water beside the boat. An hour's climb through old royal forest reaches the Peace Pagoda.
Photo: Nishess Shakya / Pexels
Planning
Give Pokhara two full days, so one hazy morning cannot cost you the mountains. Come October to early December or February to April; the ridge lodge closes from mid June. No permits, and you never sleep above 1,340 m (4,400 ft).
Photo: Martin Skřivánek / Unsplash