Makalu Base Camp Trek

Getting ready

Two to three months of preparation makes the difference between enduring this trip and enjoying it. Walk hills, not treadmills. Build to a five or six hour day with a 7 kg pack, twice a week, and add a back-to-back weekend so your legs learn what consecutive days feel like. Stairs with a loaded pack are the best substitute if you live somewhere flat.

Break in your boots properly. More trips are ruined by new footwear than by altitude.

Altitude and acclimatisation

The high point on this trip is 4,870 m. Remote, with a steep and exposed crossing of the Shipton La. Weather closes this route more often than the popular treks.

Rules we work to: gain no more than 400 to 500 m of sleeping altitude a day above 3,000 m, take a rest day roughly every 1,000 m, climb high and sleep low on those days, drink three to four litres daily, and skip alcohol and sleeping tablets above 3,500 m. Your guide carries a pulse oximeter and a first aid kit and records the group morning and evening.

Diamox (acetazolamide) is a legitimate aid, not a shortcut, and works best started 24 hours before you go high. Discuss it with your own doctor before you travel; we do not prescribe.

If anyone deteriorates, the answer is descent, immediately and without debate. Our guides have the authority to turn a client around and they use it.

Permits and paperwork

Makalu Barun National Park entry permit and a TIMS card, included.

Nepal issues visas on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport: 15, 30 or 90 days, payable in cash in most major currencies or by card. Bring two passport photographs and make sure your passport has at least six months validity.

Money, tipping and costs on the ground

Nepali rupees are the only currency accepted on the trail. Draw cash in Kathmandu or Pokhara before you leave; ATMs have a per-transaction limit of around NPR 35,000 and charge a fee, and above the roadhead there are no machines and no card terminals.

Budget roughly USD 10 to 20 a day for drinks, snacks, hot showers, charging and wifi that are not in the price. Bottled water is best avoided for both cost and plastic reasons.

Tipping is customary and genuinely matters to the crew, but it is not compulsory and never demanded. As a guide to the guide: around USD 8 to 12 per day for your trekking guide and USD 6 to 8 for each porter, pooled by the group and handed over at the end.

Staying in touch

Effectively none once you leave Tumlingtar.

Ncell and Nepal Telecom tourist SIM cards are sold at Kathmandu airport and take about ten minutes. Bring your passport.

What to pack

We send a full checklist when you book. The items people most often get wrong:

• Broken-in boots with ankle support, plus trainers or sandals for the evenings
• A four-season down sleeping bag rated to at least minus 10 C, and a down jacket. We lend both at no charge if you would rather not buy them
• Layers rather than bulk: thermal base, fleece, windproof shell, waterproof jacket and trousers
• Sun hat, warm hat, glove liners and warm gloves, and category 4 sunglasses. Snow glare at altitude is brutal
• A one-litre bottle plus a two-litre bladder, and a SteriPen or chlorine tablets so you can refill instead of buying plastic
• Personal first aid: blister plasters, ibuprofen, rehydration salts, antiseptic, any prescriptions in original packaging
• A 20,000 mAh power bank, headtorch with spare batteries, and a two-pin European plug adapter

Health and safety

No vaccinations are legally required for Nepal, but hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus are sensible and a rabies course is worth discussing if you are travelling for a long time. Check with a travel clinic six to eight weeks before you fly.

Drink treated water rather than bottled where you can, wash hands before every meal, and eat what is freshly cooked. Stomach upsets ruin more trekking days than altitude does.

Our guides carry a comprehensive first aid kit, a pulse oximeter and, on the higher routes, supplementary oxygen. We hold a 24-hour operations line in Kathmandu throughout your trip, and we run rescue coordination ourselves rather than handing it to a third party.

Responsible trekking

We pay porters above the TAAN minimum, insure every member of staff, cap load weights and provide boots, jackets and shelter at altitude. That is not a marketing line; it is the reason our crew come back season after season and some have been with the family for twenty years.

On the trail: carry your rubbish out, use refill points instead of plastic bottles, ask before photographing people, walk clockwise around mani walls and chortens, and give way to loaded yaks on the mountain side of the path, not the drop side.

Booking and cancellation

A deposit confirms your dates and the balance is due before departure. If your plans change we will move your booking to another date rather than treat it as a cancellation wherever the ground operators allow it.

Written quotes are fixed. We do not add fuel or permit surcharges after you have booked, and if a government fee rises between your booking and your departure we absorb it.

Questions before you commit are welcome and never rushed. Write to us with what you actually want and we will tell you plainly whether this trip is the right one, including when the answer is that a different route would suit you better.