Photographs

The Annapurna Circuit

A full circuit, shot over sixteen days in autumn: the dry canyon country on the north side of the range, the shelf trails above the river, the carry over the pass at dawn, and the long green descent out the other side.

The Annapurna Circuit — the tour → →

Films

The circuit, ridden
Four and a half minutes on the route the tour follows — the trail surfaces, the pass, and what the descent off the far side actually looks like from the saddle.

Photographs

A smiling rider stands with a red bike above eroded cliffs, a stone village on the terraces behind. — Wind-carved country — the dry side of the range.

A mountain biker rides narrow singletrack through golden autumn scrub high above a river valley. — Shelf singletrack through autumn scrub, valley floor far below.

Two women in traditional Himalayan dress and coral jewellery stand in a stone-walled village lane hung with prayer flags. — The villages are not scenery — people live along this route.

A line of riders pushes and shoulders bikes up switchbacks cut into a bare scree mountainside. — Where the trail out-climbs the gearing, the bike rides you.

A smiling rider in a green jacket pushes a bike up scree below steep snowfields. — The last metres before the pass go on foot, the bike pushed over the scree.

A rider crouches by a bike at the Thorong La pass sign, buried in thousands of prayer flags. — ◆ Thorong La, 5,416 metres — the sign says so, and so do the legs.

A turquoise glacial lake fills a stone gorge beneath snow-covered peaks. — Glacial water holds a colour the camera undersells.

Riders stand at the shore of a still alpine tarn that mirrors the snow range behind them. — A tarn at altitude, holding the whole range upside down.

A white and gold chorten stands on brown high ground before an immense wall of snow peaks. — High ground is holy ground here.

A wide mountain valley with a stone village on the far slope, autumn colour below snow ridges. — The high amphitheatre, where the expedition slows down to climb higher.

A group of riders lines a sandy crest with bikes raised, huge snow peaks on the horizon. — The group, the crest, and the wall of the western horizon.

A rider comes down a dusty track below tall pines, dust hanging in the light. — Pine forest, loose dust, and the gradient finally on your side.

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