Day by Day
Day 1 Kathmandu Arrival and Welcome
Arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport and be met by the SherpaHolidays representative for a private transfer to the Malla Hotel or similar luxury boutique accommodation in the Lazimpat district of Kathmandu. The rest of the afternoon is available for a first walk through the neighbourhood or a visit to the nearby temples. The welcome dinner that evening is the first gathering of the full expedition team: guides, climbers, and support staff are introduced, and the briefing covers the complete nineteen-day programme.
Stay: Malla Hotel (or similar) in Kathmandu
Day 2 Kathmandu City of Temples
The second Kathmandu day is devoted to the two sacred sites that are most relevant to the culture of the Khumbu above. Pashupatinath on the Bagmati river is the most sacred Hindu site in Nepal and one of the most significant Shiva temples in the world. The cremation ghats, the sadhus, and the continuous religious activity of the site are visible from the eastern bank and observable with the unhurried attention they deserve. Boudhanath, one of the largest stupas in the world, is the centre of the Tibetan Buddhist community in Kathmandu: the monasteries that line the stupa’s ring road, the ritual circumambulation conducted by monks and lay practitioners at all hours, and the butter lamp shrines in the courtyard are the same tradition that built the gompas of Tengboche and Pangboche above. Visiting Boudhanath before the Khumbu gives the religious culture of the high valley a context that the trek alone cannot provide. Bhaktapur in the afternoon adds the medieval Newari cities of the valley and the Golden Gate at the Palace of Fifty-Five Windows.
Stay: Malla Hotel (or similar) in Kathmandu
Days 3 to 4 Lukla to Namche Bazaar The Gateway to the Khumbu
The flight from Kathmandu to Lukla at 2,840 metres in the Solu Khumbu is forty minutes long and entirely different in character from any commercial flight. The aircraft is small, the mountain terrain is close on both sides, and the runway at Lukla is short and steeply upward-sloping with a wall at the upper end and a drop at the lower end. It is consistently rated one of the most challenging airport approaches in the world by the pilots who fly it regularly. The trail from Lukla descends to the Dudh Kosi river and then follows it upstream through the gorge, crossing the river on high suspension bridges and passing through the Sherpa villages of Phakding and Monjo before the long climb to Namche Bazaar.
Namche Bazaar at 3,440 metres is built in a natural amphitheatre on the hillside above the confluence of the Dudh Kosi and Bhote Kosi rivers. The town is the administrative and commercial centre of the Khumbu: the government offices, the police checkpoint, the banks, the bakeries, the gear shops, and the Saturday market that has drawn traders from across the region and from the Tibetan plateau since before the trekking era began. The first clear view of Everest, above the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge, appears on the climb from Monjo to Namche and is a moment that the itinerary preserves rather than rushes past.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Namche Bazaar
Day 5 Namche Bazaar Acclimatization
The acclimatization day at Namche is one of the most important days of the approach. The principle of sleeping low and walking high requires a walk that gains altitude during the day without spending the night at the higher point. The trail from Namche to the Everest View Hotel at 3,880 metres above the village gains 440 metres above the sleeping altitude and provides the first clear panoramic view of the Everest region: Everest itself above the Nuptse-Lhotse ridge, Ama Dablam to the south-east, Thamserku and Kangtega above the valley. The Sherpa Museum at Namche covers the history of the Khumbu people, their migration from Tibet, their agricultural and trade traditions, and the transformation of the region since the first Everest expedition in 1953. The afternoon is available for rest and preparation.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Namche Bazaar
Days 6 to 7 Tengboche and Pangboche The Monastery and the High Valley
The trail from Namche to Tengboche crosses the Dudh Kosi on the bridge at Phunki Tenga and climbs steeply through rhododendron forest to the monastery ridge at 3,867 metres. Tengboche Gompa was founded in 1916 and rebuilt after a fire in 1989: the main assembly hall contains the religious artefacts, thangka paintings, and monastic instruments of the Khumbu’s principal Buddhist institution. The head lama who presides here is the religious authority for the Sherpa communities of the high valley. The morning and evening puja conducted in the main hall, with the deep tones of the dungchen horns and the rhythmic percussion of the drums and cymbals, is one of the most complete encounters with Tibetan Buddhist monastic practice available to a trekking visitor. The expedition team is offered the traditional blessing before continuing higher.
Ama Dablam at 6,812 metres is visible above the monastery from the approach trail and from the courtyard: its twin ice flutings on the south-west face and the hanging glacier known locally as the dablam, the mother’s charm box, give the mountain its name and its character. It is the mountain that most visitors to the Khumbu carry home in memory above all others, including Everest itself. The trail continues from Tengboche through Pangboche to Dingboche at 4,410 metres, the high-altitude village above the Imja Khola valley whose flat meadows and stone walls shelter the lodges used for the second acclimatization day.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Tengboche then Dingboche
Day 8 Dingboche High Altitude Acclimatization
The second acclimatization day is a walk from Dingboche at 4,410 metres to the ridge above the village at approximately 5,000 metres, gaining altitude without spending the night at that height. The view from the ridge extends across the Imja Khola valley to Island Peak, the popular trekking peak whose route is visible on the far side of the valley, and above it to the south face of Lhotse at 8,516 metres: the sheer southern wall of the world’s fourth-highest mountain, one of the most formidable faces in Himalayan climbing. The walk is a full day and the altitude at the high point is enough to give the body a meaningful acclimatization stimulus. The return to Dingboche for the night consolidates the gain before the approach to the glacier terrain above.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Dingboche
Days 9 to 10 Lobuche and Gorak Shep The Glacier Moraine
The trail from Dingboche climbs through the Khumbu valley above the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier to Lobuche at 4,940 metres. The memorial chortens at Lobuche, built for mountaineers who have died on the peaks of the Khumbu, line the ridge above the village. The names on the chortens include some of the most significant figures in the history of Himalayan climbing, and the position of the memorials above the glacier approaching the highest peaks on earth gives them a weight that a mountain memorial in any lower setting would not have. Gorak Shep at 5,164 metres, the final permanent settlement before base camp, is reached the following morning: a collection of lodges on the shore of a seasonal lake on the glacier moraine, at an altitude where the effects of reduced oxygen are significant for most visitors.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Lobuche then Gorak Shep
Days 11 to 12 Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar The Icons of the Khumbu
Everest Base Camp at 5,357 metres is reached from Gorak Shep by crossing the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier and following the glacier’s surface to the site below the Khumbu Icefall where the commercial spring expeditions establish their camps. The icefall above base camp, the first major obstacle on the South Col route and the section where the greatest number of Everest fatalities have occurred, is visible in its full scale from the camp below: a cascade of ice seracs and crevasses collapsing continuously from the Western Cwm above. The scale of what Everest means as a mountaineering objective, which the photographs and the statistics incompletely convey, is available here in the form of direct sensory evidence.
Kala Pattar at 5,554 metres is reached by an early start from Gorak Shep, the trail climbing the black scree ridge above the settlement in the predawn dark to arrive at the viewpoint before the first light touches the peaks. The sunrise from Kala Pattar delivers the south-west face of Everest: the full summit pyramid, the Hillary Step on the south-east ridge, the South Col between Everest and Lhotse, and the Khumbu Icefall below. It is the most photographed view of the mountain in the world and the one from which all the standard features of the Everest topography are simultaneously visible. The view is different in quality from any photograph of it, and the effort of reaching it at altitude in the predawn cold is part of what makes it what it is.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges in Gorak Shep
Days 13 to 14 Lobuche Peak The Summit Push
The group returns from Gorak Shep to the Lobuche Peak high camp at approximately 5,600 metres on the moraine below the east face. The afternoon at high camp covers the final technical briefing: the route from high camp to the summit, the crampon and ice axe technique required on the steep section, the use of the fixed ropes, the movement protocol on the knife-edged ridge, and the contingency decisions for weather and condition changes. Ice climbing practice has been conducted earlier in the expedition at base camp, and the technical skills required are established before the summit day begins. The evening at high camp is early: sleep before 8pm for a 3am start.
Summit day begins in darkness and cold. The glacier approach from high camp in the first hours is by headlamp, the terrain below the stars and the peaks of the Khumbu visible against the dark sky above. The fixed ropes begin at the base of the technical section and continue up the 55 to 60-degree snow and ice slopes to the east ridge. The knife-edged ridge to the summit requires careful footwork and a steady pace: the exposure on both sides of the ridge is significant and the conditions on summit day vary with weather and the season. The eastern summit at 6,119 metres, when reached, delivers a 360-degree panorama of the Khumbu: Everest and Lhotse directly to the north, Nuptse and Makalu to the east, Ama Dablam to the south, Cho Oyu to the west. Total climbing time from high camp to summit and return is ten to twelve hours.
Stay: Lobuche Peak High Camp then Best Available Mountain Lodges
Days 15 to 17 Descent through the Khumbu The Homeward Trail
The descent from the Khumbu follows the approach route in reverse, moving through terrain that now carries the full weight of what has been done above. The trail from Lobuche back through Pangboche and Tengboche covers in a day terrain that took three days to ascend, and the rhododendron forest below Tengboche and the widening Dudh Kosi valley feel different at the end of a high-altitude expedition than they did at the beginning. The final night at Tengboche provides a last encounter with the gompa and its monastic community before the trail descends to Namche for the penultimate night of the trekking section.
Namche on the descent has a different quality from Namche on the approach: the Saturday market and the bakeries and the gear shops are the same, but the altitude that felt significant two weeks ago is now comfortable, and the body’s adaptation to the high country is visible in how easily the final stages of the descent are covered. The trail from Namche to Lukla follows the Dudh Kosi downstream through the gorge, the suspension bridges and the porter traffic and the monastery walls marking the familiar waypoints of the approach in reverse. The final night in Lukla before the Kathmandu flight is the expedition celebration: the full team together, the raksi poured, the dancing on the main street, and the acknowledgement of what has been accomplished in the nineteen days above.
Stay: Best Available Mountain Lodges
Days 18 to 19 Kathmandu Return and Departure
The flight from Lukla to Kathmandu returns the group to the capital in forty minutes, the mountains visible through the aircraft windows as the plane descends from the Khumbu into the valley. The final two days in Kathmandu are for rest, shopping in the Thamel district, and the farewell dinner with the full guide team. The Sherpa guides, the climbing staff, and the high-altitude porters who have carried the expedition’s equipment and supported every member of the team through nineteen days in the Khumbu are the people most responsible for the success of the summit and the safety of the descent. The farewell dinner is the appropriate occasion to recognise that.
The departure from Tribhuvan International Airport on Day 19 begins the return to the world below the altitude of the Khumbu, which is a transition that most expedition members find takes longer than the journey itself. The Everest region does not let go quickly, and the experience of standing at 6,119 metres in the predawn dark with the giants of the Himalaya arranged in all directions is the kind of thing that changes the scale by which other mountains are subsequently measured.
Stay: Malla Hotel (or similar) in Kathmandu
