Solukhumbu · Nepal · 12 days

Everest Base Camp2,860 m → 5,364 m, on foot

Don't read the itinerary. Walk it. Scroll to climb 2,504 vertical metres from the Lukla airstrip to the foot of the highest mountain on earth — one day at a time.

Scroll to climb

Day 01 · 2,860 m

Lukla

A 527-metre runway carved into a hillside at a 12° slope. The plane lands uphill because it has to. From here there are no roads — everything ahead moves on foot, on yak, or on a porter's back.

Distance: 8 km
Gain: −250 m
Walking: 3–4 hrs

Trekkers unloading from a Twin Otter at Tenzing–Hillary Airport, Lukla — Tenzing–Hillary Airport · 2,860 m

Day 03 · 3,440 m

Namche Bazaar

A horseshoe of stone houses stacked into a natural amphitheatre. You stop here two nights whether you feel like it or not — the body needs time to build red blood cells before it goes higher.

Distance: 11 km
Gain: +830 m
Rest day: Yes

The painted rooftops of Namche Bazaar filling a natural bowl — Namche Bazaar · 3,440 m

Everything above this line is carried. No roads, no wheels, no engines — only feet, yaks, and backs. Above the Khumbu

Day 05 · 3,867 m

Tengboche

The largest gompa in the Khumbu, on a ridge with Ama Dablam standing directly behind it. Trekkers arrive at dusk for the monks' evening prayers. This is the last of the rhododendron forest.

Distance: 10 km
Gain: +427 m
Walking: 5 hrs

Stupa and prayer flags at Tengboche with Ama Dablam behind — Tengboche · 3,867 m

Day 07 · 4,410 m

Dingboche

Above the treeline. Stone-walled potato fields, wind that never stops, and roughly 60% of the oxygen you had at sea level. Most groups climb Nangkartshang at 5,083 m during the day and come back down to sleep.

Distance: 12 km
Gain: +543 m
Oxygen: ~60%

Dingboche's stone-walled fields and lodges below Lhotse — Dingboche · 4,410 m

The trail is never empty. Ahead of you and behind you, a thin line of people is doing exactly the same thing, one breath at a time. The line to the top

Day 09 · 4,940 m

Gorak Shep

A frozen lakebed with four lodges on it, beside the Khumbu Glacier. You drop your pack here, walk the final stretch to Base Camp, and come back to the same room to sleep — the highest night of the trek.

Distance: 13 km
Gain: +530 m
Lodges: 4

The sandy frozen lakebed at Gorak Shep beneath Nuptse — Gorak Shep · 4,940 m

Day 10 · 5,364 m

Everest Base Camp

Prayer flags, a boulder with the altitude painted on it, and the Khumbu Icefall grinding downhill behind you. You can't see the summit from here — Nuptse hides it. Nobody minds.

Altitude: 5,364 m
Total gain: +2,504 m
On foot: 130 km

Ice pinnacles of the Khumbu Glacier at Everest Base Camp — Everest Base Camp · 5,364 m

The 3,484 metres you don't walk

Everything above Base Camp.

Your trek ends on that moraine at 5,364 m. The mountain keeps going for another two vertical miles — through the Khumbu Icefall, up the Western Cwm, past four high camps and the Hillary Step, to a summit roughly the size of a dining table.

Aerial ascent · full filmBase Camp to the Summit of Everest

4:01

Base Camp: 5,300 m
Camp 1: 6,000 m
Camp 2: 6,500 m
Camp 3: 7,200 m
Camp 4: 7,950 m
Balcony: 8,400 m
Summit: 8,848 m

Giving up is not in the blood.
Nirmal “Nims” Purja Nepali mountaineer. Climbed all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks in six months and six days — a record that had stood at seven years.

Stills from the ascent

Nine frames, five vertical kilometres.

Pulled from the film above — the icefall, the Cwm, the high camps, the summit ridge. Click any frame to open it full size.

Seracs in the Khumbu Icefall — The Khumbu Icefall

Ice towers under a deep blue sky — Ice towers below Camp 1

Entrance to the Western Cwm — Into the Western Cwm

A single figure crossing the glacier — One figure, whole glacier

Tents of a high camp on the ice — A high camp on the ice

A roped line of climbers on the glacier — The roped line

Crevasse field below the high camps — Crevasse field

Exposed rock on the upper mountain — The rocky crux

The final ridge toward the summit — The summit ridge

Your trek passport

Six stamps. One trail.

Every checkpoint you passed on the way down this page. Scroll back up and you'll walk it again — the mountain doesn't move.

Lukla2,860mDay 01

Namche3,440mDay 03

Tengboche3,867mDay 05

Dingboche4,410mDay 07

Gorak Shep4,940mDay 09

Base Camp5,364mDay 10

You will not stand up there. That's fine — almost nobody does. You'll stand at the bottom of it, which is further than most people ever get. 8,848 m · Sagarmāthā

One foot, then the other

The mountain doesn't ask if you're an athlete.

It asks whether you'll put one foot down, then the next, for nine days — slowly enough to breathe, stubbornly enough to keep going. Almost nobody who reaches Base Camp is exceptional. They just didn't stop.

You start at 2,860 m · Day one

Departures Mar–May · Sep–Nov

Now walk it for real.

13 nights, 14 days from Kathmandu. Licensed Sherpa guides, teahouse lodging, every permit handled.

Dates & price — $1,650 Compare other treks

Image credits

Lukla — "Deplaning at Tenzing-Hillary airport" by Jaccoob23, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Namche Bazaar — "Namche Bazaar, Mountains, Nepal" by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tengboche — "Tengboche-74-Lhotse und Ama Dablam" by Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dingboche — "Dingboche Lhotse" by Superikonoskop, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Gorak Shep — "Gorak Shep-20-Everest-Lhotse-Nuptse" by Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Everest Base Camp — "Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp-60, Khumbu Glacier" by Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Annapurna Base Camp — "Annapurna Base Camp Trek" by Stefanos Nikologianis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Poon Hill — "Poohill Sunrise" by Kondephy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Manaslu Circuit — "Samdo village, Manaslu circuit trek" by Shivagautam1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Upper Mustang — "Lomanthang Upper Mustang 2023" by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Porter on the ridge — "Luza, Machhermo, Sherpa, Nepal" by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Porter resting — "Luza, Machhermo, Sherpa boy, Nepal" by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Woman with doko basket — "Pangboche, Sherpa senior woman, Nepal" by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Village street — "Pheriche, Sherpas, Nepal, Himalayas" by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Porters at the lodge — "Kusum porters" by Sgroey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Video, bands & gallery stills — aerial footage supplied by client (DJI). Demo use only; licensed or original footage required before publication.

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