What you can expect from our reporting, and an honest account of how a small independent journal stays independent.
Last updated: 20 April 2026.
The Annapurna is published by Annapurna Trails Media LLC, an independent media company based in Asheville, North Carolina. This page sets out the principles behind our writing and the complete picture of how the journal is funded. We keep it in plain language on purpose.
Every route, town and trail described in this journal was visited by the writer whose name appears on the piece. We walk the full routes we cover, we pay for our own beds, buses, permits and meals, and we take our own photographs and notes. We do not compile guides from other publications, and we do not publish AI-assembled itineraries dressed up as reporting. Where we describe a variant or season we have not personally experienced, we say so in the text.
We do not accept hosted trips, complimentary stays, free gear "for review," or payments of any kind in exchange for coverage. Tourism boards, tour operators, lodges and equipment brands cannot buy, influence or remove a mention in our guides. Nobody outside the editorial team sees an article before publication. If this ever changes for a specific piece — it has not yet — the piece will carry a disclosure at the top, not the bottom.
The Annapurna has exactly two sources of revenue:
That is the entire list. We carry no affiliate links: nothing in our guides pays us a commission if you click it or book it. We sell no trips, no gear and no bookings. When we name a refuge, a guesthouse or a bus company, it is a factual report of where we stayed and how we traveled — there is no financial relationship behind any of it. If our funding model ever changes, this page will change first.
Mountain logistics change fast: permits are reformed, huts change hands, roads advance, prices climb. We record prices and rules as we personally encountered them, date every article, and update guides when we rewalk a region or when a reader correction checks out. We still urge you to verify time-sensitive details — permits, reservations, transport — with official sources before committing money. When we get something wrong, we fix it visibly: substantive corrections are noted on the article itself. Send corrections to [email protected]; a human reads that inbox.
Mountain travel involves real risk — altitude illness, weather, remoteness — and our guides discuss these hazards frankly. But an article is not a guide service. Nothing we publish substitutes for your own judgment, adequate insurance, current local advice or, where appropriate, a licensed guide. We describe what we did; only you can decide what you should do.
Our articles are written and edited by the people named on them. We may use software for spell-checking, image processing and similar chores, but the walking, the reporting, the opinions and the mistakes are entirely human.
We collect as little personal data as we can and we never sell it. The details live in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
