Nepal's autumn climbing season is shaping up to be the busiest ever on Manaslu. The country's Ministry of Tourism has issued 466 permits to foreign climbers — an all-time high — and according to Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, Base Camp will host more than 1,000 people this season. That's approaching Everest-scale crowding on a mountain many once saw as a quieter alternative.

Right now, most of those climbers are stuck waiting out rain and fog at Base Camp, which sits at 4,800m. Puja ceremonies happened last weekend, and teams are rotating through Camps 2 and 3 to acclimatise, but the rope-fixing crew needs more stable weather before opening the route to the summit. One scare earlier this week underlined the conditions: a climber slipped into a crevasse below Camp 1 on the soggy, rain-soaked lower glacier. Fortunately he was clipped into the rope and was pulled out unharmed within minutes.

Among those new to Base Camp is Italian veteran Simone Moro, who many suspect is scoping a winter, light-style attempt on Manaslu — a project he has chased before. Last year a cardiac problem during acclimatisation on Mera Peak ended his expedition before it began, but he recovered and climbed Denali in June with winter Manaslu in mind.

Meanwhile, attention is shifting to Dhaulagiri (8,167m), where two large commercial teams totalling 19 foreign climbers are just getting underway: one from Altipro Adventures led by Saila Mingma, another from 14 Peaks Expedition under Makalu Lakpa. It's a far quieter mountain. Elsewhere, only two Russian climbers are active, tackling Makalu in alpine style, and Ama Dablam's big teams won't arrive until October.

The season opened against a sombre backdrop. Nearly three weeks after catastrophic flooding of the Bhotekosi River near the Tibetan border, 310 foreign tourists have been rescued and 13 more found alive — many were on Mount Kailash pilgrimages when floods hit Rasuwa. But 607 people from 34 nationalities remain missing, including travellers from India, the US, Malaysia, Ukraine, China, Australia, Latvia, the UK and Canada.

Despite the disaster, Nepali authorities and outfitters are urging travellers not to cancel. They stress that trekking routes, lodges and base camps across the country are open and operating normally. For anyone eyeing an autumn trek in Nepal, the practical picture is that the big trade routes and popular peaks remain very much in business — Manaslu perhaps a little too much so, if you were hoping for solitude.