Rapids name:
Instant karma, Morphine, Twinkie, Good morning and more.

Summary

Marsyandi means "Ranging River” in the local dialect, a fitting description for this kind of whitewater.

One of the best class 4 kayaking rivers in the world- continuous, exhilarating whitewater with magnificent mountain backdrops. Recommended for expert kayakers and rafters. Note that a new dam is being built at Phaliya Sanghu - this will ruin the Marsyandi for kayaking and rafting- so run it whilst you can.

The River

The Marsyandi rises on the northern slopes on the Annapurna Himal, flows east through an arid valley around Manang, and then swings south to join the Trisuli River at Mugling. Marsyandi means 'raging river' in local dialect, and this aptly describes it. Some of the river above Ngadi has been kayaked- The 1980 British Expedition started from Tilicho Lake at 4920 m, but much of the upper river should probably be considered as un run able.

The scenery is magnificent, with every bend of the river opening up fresh vistas of some of the World's highest mountains, but these are behind- as someone said 'great views but you need rear view mirrors". The Marsyandi is a photographer's dream- the water is usually a clear turquoise blue; there are these huge, fantastically sculptured boulders, some spectacular white wet, green valley sides, and a magnificent backdrop of the World's highest mountains. It's worth mentioning that although the valley has a rough road up it, and is quite densely populated; you don't see this when you are addling because the river is incised about 100ft into the valley floor.

The lower Marsyandi gorges from Bimalnagar down to Mugling are an excellent river trip but a dam was built some ten years ago to generate electricity for Kathmandu and so the water flows on this lower river are unpredictable and now mainly limited to post monsoon. However, we include some short notes at the end of this description.