Trek to Everest Base Camp with a Sherpa Family

18 Days to the Foot of Everest

Days 1 to 3 | Kathmandu

Arrive in Kathmandu for the expedition briefing and three days in the Kathmandu Valley, at Swayambhunath, Pashupatinath, Boudhanath, and the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu and Patan. The Buddhist and Hindu traditions you see at these sites are the same ones that built the gompas of Tyangboche and Khumjung, and the Sherpa communities of the Khumbu have kept them up without interruption for centuries. The valley is worth seeing for its own sake, and some background here makes the visit to Tyangboche Monastery mean much more.

Days 4 to 6 | Lukla to Khumjung

The mountain flight from Kathmandu to Lukla takes you straight into the high country. From Lukla the trail follows the Dudh Kosi River through rhododendron and magnolia forest, over suspension bridges and past the teahouse villages of the lower valley. Namche Bazaar, at 3,440 meters, is the trading and cultural hub of the Sherpa world. On the acclimatization day you walk up to Khumjung (3,780 meters), a traditional Sherpa village above the town, shaped by mountaineering, Gurkha service, and the Hillary School at its center. The same day you get your first clear views of Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam from the ridge above Namche.

Days 7 to 11 | Tyangboche to Lobuche

From Namche the trail drops into the Dudh Kosi gorge and climbs the far side through mossy forest to the saddle at Tyangboche, home of the most important monastery in the Khumbu, with Ama Dablam rising directly above it. Above Tyangboche the trees thin out and you start to feel the altitude in your pace. Dingboche (4,410 meters) has an acclimatization day built into the schedule, with the option to walk higher toward Chukhung before resting. The last stretch to Lobuche (4,930 meters) follows the lateral moraine of the Khumbu glacier through rock and scrub under the wide sky of the high Himalaya.

Days 12 to 13 | Kala Patthar and Everest Base Camp

The climb to Kala Patthar (5,550 meters) before dawn gives you the summit view: Everest’s full pyramid above the Nuptse ridge in the first light, with the South Col and the climbing route both in view. Later the same day you walk from Gorak Shep along the moraine of the Khumbu glacier to base camp at the foot of the icefall, at 5,364 meters. Nearly every Everest expedition on the Nepal side since 1953 has started here, and with the glacier below and the icefall above, you finally get a sense of the mountain’s size.

Days 14 to 18 | The Descent and Return

You retrace the route through Lobuche, Dingboche, Tyangboche, and Namche, stronger than on the way up and at an easier pace. The last night in the mountains is at Lukla, and the next morning’s flight gets you back to Kathmandu in time for a last day of sightseeing in Patan and Bhaktapur before your international departure. The trip ends with a traditional Nepali dinner, shared with the team who walked it with you.

Day by Day

Days 1 to 3 Kathmandu The Sacred Valley

Arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport, where the SherpaHolidays team meets you and takes you to the hotel. The expedition briefing that first evening sets up everything that follows. It covers the full 18-day route in detail: the altitude profile from Lukla to Kala Patthar, how we acclimatize, the daily distances and elevation changes, the lodges along the way, and the physical demands of the upper Khumbu. The Everest trek is one of the most popular high-altitude treks in the world, and it is still hard work, so the briefing prepares you for what the altitude will ask of you from Namche upward.

Swayambhunath sits on a hilltop above the western edge of Kathmandu, its white stupa and golden tower visible from much of the city. It has been a center of Buddhist practice for over two thousand years, and the monkeys that give it its common name live in the trees on the hillside below and are part of the place by now. Pashupatinath, on the Bagmati River, is Nepal’s most sacred Hindu site, with ghats where the dead are cremated and courtyards where sadhus receive visitors. Boudhanath, the great stupa on the eastern edge of the city, is one of the largest in the world and has been the center of Kathmandu’s Tibetan Buddhist community since the exile of 1959. The medieval streets of Kirtipur, an old town on a ridge above the valley, see fewer visitors and are better preserved for it. These days give you the cultural background for the mountains ahead.

Stay: Malla Hotel or similar, Kathmandu

Days 4 to 6 Lukla to Khumjung The Sherpa Heartland

The flight to Lukla leaves early, before cloud builds up in the valley and closes the mountain airstrips. The plane flies east over the middle hills as the ground rises from the foothills toward the ranges of the Khumbu, then comes in along the hillside to the Lukla runway at 2,840 meters. The airstrip is short and the landing is firm. Lukla is a busy, working town: lodges and outfitters line the one main street, porters sort their loads in the square below the runway, and the trail north into the Khumbu starts just past the stone gateway at the top of the village.

From Lukla the trail follows the Dudh Kosi River through some of the best valley forest in Nepal. Rhododendron, magnolia, and giant fir cover the slopes on both sides of the river, and the trees are large and old where the national park protects them. The river runs fast and loud below the suspension bridges, gray with glacial silt from the high peaks. Along the way you pass through Phakding and Monjo, with their stone houses and teahouse gardens, old stops on a route people used long before the first trekking groups came in the 1960s.

Namche Bazaar, at 3,440 meters, is the Sherpa capital, a horseshoe-shaped bowl on the hillside above the Dudh Kosi gorge, with lodges, bakeries, and expedition outfitters packed onto every level of the natural amphitheater. The Saturday market, when Tibetan traders bring goods down from the plateau and valley people carry produce up from below, has run for generations and is still the commercial heart of the Khumbu. On the acclimatization day you walk up to Khumjung (3,780 meters), the largest traditional Sherpa village in the region. On a clear morning the ridge above Khumjung shows you Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam all together for the first time, instead of as distant shapes above a ridgeline.

Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges

Days 7 to 11 Tyangboche to Lobuche The Final Approach

From Namche the path drops steeply through juniper and fir into the Dudh Kosi gorge, crosses the river, and climbs the far side through mossy forest to the saddle at 3,860 meters. Tyangboche Monastery is the most important religious site in the Khumbu, and its setting, on a forested shelf with Ama Dablam rising right above and the Everest group to the north, is one of the most striking of any building in Nepal. The monastery was founded in the early twentieth century and rebuilt after a fire in 1989. Its monks keep up a daily practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that the Sherpa people brought across the Nangpa La from Tibet several centuries ago. In the evening you can watch the puja from the courtyard of the gompa, with the butter lamps lit and the chanting carrying outside.

Above Tyangboche the forest thins and gives way to open alpine meadow, and the peaks are in view on all sides, closer each day. Dingboche, at 4,410 meters, sits in a wide valley below the Imja Glacier, and its stone-walled potato and barley fields show how hard the Sherpa people have worked to farm at this altitude. The acclimatization day at Dingboche matters: your body needs the rest and the altitude gain, and the optional walk toward Chukhung (4,730 meters) adds acclimatization without a full day’s distance.

From Dingboche to Lobuche the trail follows the lateral moraine of the Khumbu glacier up the Khumbu Valley. Little grows here: lichen on the boulders, low scrub in the hollows, and bare moraine underfoot. The Pyramid Research Station sits on a hillside above the trail. The memorial cairns for climbers lost on Everest line the Thukla Pass below Lobuche, a long row of stone monuments with inscribed plaques, a quiet record of what the mountain has cost over the decades. Lobuche, at 4,930 meters, is the last lodge village before the glaciers of the upper Khumbu, and its handful of stone buildings give you a last comfortable night before the highest part of the trek.

Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges

Days 12 to 13 Kala Patthar and Everest Base Camp The Summit View

From Lobuche the trail crosses the terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier, climbing steadily over loose rock and gravel. Gorak Shep, at 5,140 meters, is the last stop: a flat, sandy plain above the glacier with a handful of lodges serving meals and hot drinks to groups at every stage of acclimatization. The next morning you start early for Kala Patthar and walk in the cold and dark, before the day warms up. The climb to 5,550 meters takes two to three hours at altitude pace, and you reach the summit ridge as the first light touches the peaks. From here you get one of the clearest, most direct views of Everest a trekker can reach in Nepal: the full summit pyramid above the Nuptse ridge, the South Col on the left skyline, and, if you know what to look for, the route of the 1953 ascent.

You reach Everest Base Camp the same day, in the afternoon after coming down from Kala Patthar. From Gorak Shep the trail follows the moraine beside the Khumbu glacier to the flat ground at 5,364 meters where expeditions pitch their tents in the climbing season. Outside the season, from October to February, nothing marks base camp on the ground: it is a wide stretch of moraine at the foot of the icefall, with the glacier shifting audibly below and the route up through the seracs white and closed above. In any season you feel the scale of it and what it means in the history of mountaineering. Standing at the foot of the Khumbu Icefall, looking up the route nearly every Everest expedition from Nepal has used since 1953, is the high point of the trek.

Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodge at Gorak Shep

Days 14 to 18 Lobuche to Kathmandu The Homeward Trail

From base camp and Gorak Shep you retrace the route through Lobuche and the moraines of the upper Khumbu. Going down feels very different: the altitude drops each day, your muscles are strong from two weeks of daily walking, and the pace is easier. On ground you now know, you have time to notice more: the rock formations, the afternoon light on the peaks, and the sound of the glacier that was background noise on the way up.

Tyangboche feels different on the way down, without the pressure of gaining altitude. After a week above it, the monastery looks smaller against the mountains around it. Below Tyangboche the forest smells damp and green after the dry air of the high Khumbu, and Namche, when it comes back into view on the hillside above the gorge, feels like a town you know. The last night in the mountains is at Lukla, and the next morning’s flight gets the group back to Kathmandu in time for a last day in the city.

Patan and Bhaktapur are the two best-preserved medieval cities in the Kathmandu Valley, and after two weeks of rock and ice, their stone courtyards, carved wood, pagoda temples, and busy streets are a pleasure to walk through. The traditional Nepali dinner that ends the expedition, with the full guide and support team there, is a proper celebration of what the group has done together. You fly home the following morning.

Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges then Malla Hotel or similar, Kathmandu

The Sherpa Standard

This trek is fully supported from the day you land in Kathmandu to the day you fly home. Here is what that covers on the Everest route.

Accommodation and Meals

• Kathmandu: 4 nights at the Malla Hotel or similar in Kathmandu on a bed and breakfast basis.
• Mountain Lodges: 13 nights in the best available high-altitude lodges along the route, chosen by the SherpaHolidays team for comfort and location.
• Full Board on Trek: All meals throughout the 18-day expedition: breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a mix of traditional Nepali and international dishes cooked fresh at each lodge.

Leadership and Support

• Expedition Guide: One experienced English-speaking Sherpa trekking guide who knows the Khumbu region, Sherpa culture, and high-altitude walking well, with you for the whole trek.
• Sherpa Support Team: Professional porters at one per two guests, handling all personal luggage and expedition logistics throughout.
• Staff Ethics: Full insurance coverage for all local Sherpa guides and porters as standard.

Transport and Permits

• Private Transfers: All arrival, departure, and sightseeing transfers in Kathmandu by private vehicle.
• Domestic Flights: Round-trip domestic flights on the Kathmandu to Lukla to Kathmandu route for every guest and the trekking guide, including all domestic airport departure taxes.
• Ramechhap Transfer: In the busy spring and autumn seasons, Lukla flights often leave from Manthali airport in Ramechhap instead of Kathmandu. When they do, the road transfer between Kathmandu and Ramechhap, both ways, is included.
• Permits: Sagarmatha National Park entry permit and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit, fully covered and arranged before you start walking.
• Heritage Access: All heritage site and monument entry fees for Kathmandu Valley sightseeing fully covered.

What Is Not Included

• International airfare to and from Nepal
• Nepal entry visa fees
• Lunch and dinner in Kathmandu, and drinks throughout
• Comprehensive travel insurance, which is a condition of every booking. Your policy must cover emergency medical treatment, emergency evacuation, trip cancellation and interruption, and repatriation. We can recommend providers.
• Tips for guides and porters, personal trekking equipment, and souvenirs
• Single supplement (for those taking a private room)

Five Highlights

Everest Base Camp

Base camp, at 5,364 meters, is where almost every successful ascent of Everest from the Nepal side has begun since the first expeditions of the early 1950s, and the Khumbu Icefall above it shows you the size and seriousness of the mountain up close. You can hear the glacier here as the ice shifts, settles, and now and then cracks. Standing at the foot of the world’s highest mountain is what the whole trek builds toward, from the first day out of Lukla.

Kala Patthar at Sunrise

The climb to Kala Patthar (5,550 meters) before dawn is the best-known morning of the upper Khumbu. You start in the cold by headlamp and climb slowly in air about half as dense as at sea level, reaching the summit ridge as the first light touches the peaks above. Trekkers have been making this climb for sixty years. From the top you get one of the clearest views of Everest you can reach on foot in Nepal: the full summit pyramid above the Nuptse ridge, the South Col in view, and the size of the mountain finally clear.

Tyangboche Monastery

The most important monastery in the Khumbu stands on a forested saddle at 3,860 meters, with Ama Dablam rising directly above and the Everest group in view to the north. Few buildings in Nepal have a setting like it. It is also a working monastery: the monks keep up their daily practice, butter lamps are lit for the evening puja, and the community around the gompa has kept its traditions going without interruption since the early twentieth century. The Sherpa people brought this Tibetan Buddhist practice with them across the Nangpa La from Tibet several hundred years ago, and knowing that history adds a great deal to a walk through the courtyard.

Namche Bazaar and the Sherpa World

Namche Bazaar is the trading and cultural center of the Khumbu, a horseshoe-shaped town on the hillside above the Dudh Kosi gorge, where the trade of the high and low Himalaya has met for centuries. The families who run Namche’s lodges and outfitters are the same families who have supplied and guided Everest expeditions since the 1950s, and their knowledge of the mountain and its approaches goes back generations. With the Saturday market, the bakeries, the gear shops, and trekkers, porters, and yak caravans passing through all day, it is the liveliest town on the route and worth the extra day.

The Forests of the Dudh Kosi

The lower Khumbu is green, forested country, very different from the bare rock and ice higher up. Between Lukla and Namche the trail passes through some of the best forest in Nepal: rhododendron, magnolia, and giant fir on slopes protected within Sagarmatha National Park for over half a century. The rhododendrons bloom in March and April, red, pink, and white on the hillsides above the trail. The Dudh Kosi runs beside the path for most of the lower section, and you hear it below every suspension bridge. These forest days, before the altitude sets in, are some of the most pleasant of the trek, so take them slowly.