Everest Base Camp Trek

Our representative meets you at Tribhuvan International Airport and transfers you to your hotel in Kathmandu. Depending on when you land you are free to rest or walk into the city. In the evening we meet for a welcome dinner, go through the itinerary day by day, check your gear and answer questions. If anything is missing from your kit there is time to buy or rent it tomorrow.

Altitude: 1,400 m. Transfer: about 30 minutes from the airport.

A guided day around the Kathmandu Valley's UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Boudhanath, one of the largest stupas in the world and the centre of Tibetan Buddhist life in Nepal; the Pashupatinath temple complex on the Bagmati river; and Swayambhunath, the hilltop stupa above the city.

In the afternoon we complete your permits, weigh and repack your duffel to the 15 kg porter limit, and pick up anything still missing from the gear shops in Thamel.

Altitude: 1,400 m. Walking: 2 to 3 hours of easy sightseeing.

An early start for the flight to Lukla. In peak season the flight leaves from Ramechhap, a four to five hour drive from Kathmandu, so we depart around 1 am; outside those months we fly direct from Kathmandu. The landing at Tenzing-Hillary airport, on a 527 m runway built into the hillside at a 12 degree slope, is an experience in itself.

We meet the porters, have tea, and start walking by mid-morning. The trail drops gently through Chheplung and Ghat, following the Dudh Koshi past mani walls and prayer wheels, with Kusum Kanguru ahead. A deliberately short first day to let your body start adjusting.

Distance: 6.2 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours. Altitude: 250 m down from Lukla.

The first substantial day. The trail crosses the Dudh Koshi five times on suspension bridges strung with prayer flags, the last and highest being the Hillary Bridge above the river confluence. At Monjo we register at the Sagarmatha National Park entrance and your permits are checked.

From Jorsalle the trail climbs steeply for two hours. On a clear day there is a first glimpse of Everest partway up, framed between Lhotse and Nuptse. Namche Bazaar sits in a horseshoe bowl at 3,440 m and is the commercial heart of the Khumbu: bakeries, gear shops, a bank, and the Saturday market that draws traders from across the region.

Distance: 10.5 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude gain: 830 m.

A rest day, but not a day spent in bed. The principle is climb high, sleep low. We walk up to the Everest View Hotel at 3,880 m for the panorama of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam, then continue to the Sherpa villages of Khumjung and Khunde, where Sir Edmund Hillary built the school and the hospital. Khumjung monastery keeps what is said to be a yeti scalp.

On the way back, the Sagarmatha National Park visitor centre above Namche has good displays on Sherpa culture and the natural history of the Khumbu. Your guide checks oxygen saturation and pulse this evening, as on every evening from here up.

Distance: 5 to 7 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Climb high: 3,880 m, sleep at 3,440 m.

One of the most beautiful days of the trek. The trail contours around the hillside from Namche with Ama Dablam, Everest, Lhotse and Thamserku in view for most of the morning, then drops 600 m to the river at Phunki Tenga, where water-driven prayer wheels turn in the stream.

The afternoon is the climb: two hours of steady switchbacks through rhododendron and birch forest to the saddle at Tengboche. The monastery here is the largest in the Khumbu and the spiritual centre of the region, rebuilt after a fire in 1989. Afternoon prayers are usually at 3 pm and visitors may sit quietly at the back. Ama Dablam stands directly behind the courtyard.

Distance: 9.2 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 420 m net, with a 600 m descent and re-climb.

Through the last of the forest to Deboche, across the Imja Khola on a high bridge, and up to Pangboche, the oldest settlement in the Khumbu, where the monastery above the village is worth the short detour. From here the trees thin out and the landscape turns alpine: juniper scrub, boulder fields and the river braiding across a wide valley floor.

The trail climbs gradually to Dingboche at 4,410 m, a village of stone-walled potato fields in the Imja valley, with Island Peak at the head of the valley and Ama Dablam now showing its other face.

Distance: 12 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 550 m.

The second and more important rest day. We climb the Nangkartshang ridge above the village to around 5,050 m, a steep three-hour round trip that opens one of the great viewpoints of the trek: Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world, appears to the east, with Lhotse, Island Peak and the whole Imja valley below.

The afternoon is genuinely free. Dingboche has bakeries and a couple of lodges with good sun rooms. Drink at least three litres today, eat properly even if your appetite has dropped, and tell your guide about any headache rather than waiting to see if it passes.

Distance: 4 to 5 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours. Climb high: 5,050 m, sleep at 4,410 m.

A short and deliberately gentle day, which is what makes the days above it manageable. The trail climbs onto the ridge above Dingboche and contours across open moorland with Taboche and Cholatse ahead, joining the main trail from Pheriche at Dughla, a cluster of two lodges at the foot of the Khumbu glacier's terminal moraine.

Some itineraries push straight through to Lobuche. We stop here because the extra night at 4,620 m makes a measurable difference to how people feel at Gorak Shep.

Distance: 4 km. Walking: 2 to 3 hours. Altitude gain: 210 m.

The day begins with a steep 45-minute climb up the moraine to the Thukla Pass at 4,830 m. At the top is the memorial ground: dozens of stone chortens and plaques for climbers and Sherpas who died on Everest and the surrounding peaks, including Scott Fischer and Babu Chiri Sherpa. It is a quiet place and most groups spend time there.

From the pass the trail runs alongside the Khumbu glacier's lateral moraine to Lobuche, with the west face of Nuptse rising directly ahead. Nights here are cold, often minus 10 to minus 15 degrees inside the room.

Distance: 4.5 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours. Altitude gain: 320 m.

The biggest day of the trek. A rough two to three hour walk over glacial moraine brings you to Gorak Shep at 5,164 m, the last settlement, a handful of lodges on a sandy flat beside a frozen lakebed. We drop bags, eat an early lunch and continue to Base Camp.

The route follows the side of the Khumbu glacier over loose rock and ice, two to three hours each way. Base Camp sits at 5,364 m at the foot of the Khumbu Icefall, marked by prayer flags and, in the spring climbing season, the tents of expedition teams. You cannot see Everest's summit from here, which surprises people: the walls of Nuptse and the West Shoulder block it. What you can see is the icefall itself, cracking and shifting audibly.

Back to Gorak Shep for the night, tired and probably not hungry. Eat anyway.

Distance: 15 km round trip. Walking: 7 to 8 hours. Altitude: 5,164 m sleeping, 5,364 m maximum.

A pre-dawn start, usually around 4.30 am by headlamp, for the steep 1.5 to 2 hour climb up Kala Patthar. It is a hard ninety minutes at this altitude, but this is the view the trek is built around: Everest's summit pyramid, black and wind-scoured, standing clear above the Khumbu with Pumori behind you and Nuptse, Lhotse, Changtse and Ama Dablam ranged around. Sunrise turns the whole face gold in about four minutes.

Back to Gorak Shep for breakfast, then a long descent past Lobuche and Dughla to Pheriche at 4,240 m. The thicker air is immediately noticeable and most people sleep better tonight than they have in a week.

Distance: 15 km. Walking: 7 to 8 hours. Altitude: up 380 m to 5,545 m, then down 1,300 m.

A long descent, retracing the route through Pangboche and Deboche, back across the Imja Khola and up the short climb to Tengboche, then the steep drop to Phunki Tenga and the final contour into Namche. It is more downhill than most people expect and trekking poles earn their place today.

Namche after a week at altitude feels almost tropical. There are hot showers, bakeries and the first properly warm evening since Lukla.

Distance: 14.5 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude loss: 800 m.

The last walking day. Down the steep hill out of Namche, back across the Hillary Bridge and the river crossings, through Monjo and Phakding, and along the valley to Lukla. It is a long day but an easy one, and there is time to say goodbye properly to the porters, who usually leave the group here.

The evening in Lukla is traditionally when the crew and trekkers eat together and the trek is toasted.

Distance: 19 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude loss: 580 m.

An early morning flight back to Kathmandu or Ramechhap, weather permitting. Flights depart in the order the weather allows, so the day can start very early or involve waiting at the airstrip. Once in Kathmandu the rest of the day is free: most people head straight for a hot shower, then Thamel. In the evening we have a farewell dinner with the team.

If cloud closes the airstrip, your guide will manage the alternatives, which are to wait for the next window or to take a helicopter seat at additional cost. We recommend keeping at least two spare days in Nepal before your international flight home.

Flight: 35 minutes to Kathmandu, or 25 minutes to Ramechhap plus a 4 to 5 hour drive.

Transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before your flight. If you are staying on in Nepal we can arrange onward travel: a Chitwan safari, a few days in Pokhara, or an extension into Bhutan or Tibet.