It was my first trek, and I was thrilled and not at all sure I would make it. If you are thinking about Everest Base Camp and hesitating: go. If I could do it first time out, most people can.
Be honest about your own limits, though. Altitude sickness is common and it can be fatal. Acclimatisation between Lukla and Base Camp is the whole game — I got altitude sickness twice and recovered both times, and we passed plenty of people on the way up who got it and turned back.
The trek starts at Lukla if you fly in, or at Jiri if you take the bus. We walked the trail in twelve days. It is one of the longest and highest treks there is, and the most memorable one I have done.
Everest is Sagarmatha here and Chomolungma on the Tibetan side. What you get along the way is the scenery, the forest and shrubland lower down, the glaciers higher up, the Sherpa lodges, and the mountains. For me the best of it was simply seeing Everest with my own eyes — that part is once in a lifetime.
If you are going without a guide, look at the map and the route beforehand. In practice the trail is so busy with trekkers, porters, guides and animals that losing it is hard. I used Google’s offline maps and Maps.me, which helped anyway.
Go either March to May or October to December — pre-monsoon or post-monsoon, when there is less chance of rain. I walked it from 24 March to 3 April. In eleven days it rained once, on the first afternoon between Lukla and Phakding. The sun was out most days. It drops fast once the sun goes: −10 to −15°C at night.
What I carried
- Hiking clothes — The sun is out most of the day, so a sporty t-shirt that dries quickly, plus a fleece and a rain jacket.
- Normal clothes — For resting at the lodges. A thermal pair, comfortable shoes and a down jacket is enough.
- Head lamp — For early starts, and for the days you end up walking after dark.
- First aid — Bandages, paracetamol, Diamox for altitude sickness.
- Sunglasses — The sun is extremely strong up there.
- Wet wipes — Most places will give you hot water to wash. For the days they cannot, these matter more than you expect.
- Trekking shoes — I took two pairs — one for trekking, one for the rest of the time. That worked.
- Cash — Take enough out in Kathmandu for the whole trek. There are ATMs at Lukla and Namche, and most lodges take cards, but do not plan on it.
- Sleeping bag — Lodge bedrooms are cold at night — get one rated to −10 or −15. I rented mine from Shona’s Alpine in Thamel and never used it: we were given extra blankets the whole way up to Gorakshep.
- Toiletries — Tissues, toothbrush and toothpaste, sunscreen, lip balm, hand wash.
- Chocolate — I took a few packs of Snickers. You want them on the climbing days.
- Offline maps — Google Maps and Maps.me on Android. Both carry the trail and both were accurate.
- A 50-litre pack — Big enough for all of the above. I rented that from Shona’s too.
The twelve days
| Day | From | To | What you see | Altitude (m) | Hours | Going |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kathmandu | Lukla · Phakding · Monjo | The plane ride, the suspension bridges, the Hillary Bridge | 2,835 | 3–4 | Basic |
| 2 | Monjo | Namche | Sagarmatha National Park entrance | 3,440 | 6–7 | Moderate |
| 3 | Acclimatisation | Khumjung and back | Everest View Hotel, Khumjung Monastery | 3,962 | 4–5 | Basic |
| 4 | Namche | Thyangboche (Tengboche) | Tengboche Monastery | 3,860 | 5–6 | Moderate |
| 5 | Thyangboche | Dingboche | Lhotse, Island Peak and Ama Dablam; the Imja Khola | 4,360 | 5–6 | Moderate |
| 6 | Acclimatisation | Nagarjun Peak | Makalu | 5,080 | 4–5 | Difficult |
| 7 | Dingboche | Lobuche | Pumori and the Khumbu Icefall; the memorial | 4,940 | — | Difficult |
| 8 | Lobuche | Gorakshep · Everest Base Camp · Gorakshep | Mountains and glaciers; Everest | 5,364 | 9–10 | Difficult |
| 9 | Gorakshep | Kala Patthar · Pheriche | Sunrise on Everest | 5,545 | 8–9 | Difficult |
| 10 | Pheriche | Namche | Celebration, and the local market | 3,440 | 7–8 | Basic |
| 11 | Namche | Lukla | The feeling of having finished | 2,635 | 8–9 | Basic |
| 12 | Lukla | Kathmandu | That plane ride again | — | ½ | — |
I first wrote this on nepaltrekkingsite.com, a site I used to run. That site is gone; this is recovered from the Internet Archive’s capture of 29 December 2023 and lightly edited.