The trek with Alpine Ascents is billed as a 3 week trek but some of that is travel and acclimation. There are 14 actual hiking days and the route is a south-to-north out-and-back course that mostly follows river valleys. The northern terminus of the hike is Everest Base Camp (EBC) at 17,600′. The entire distance is less than 100 miles but there is a lot of elevation gain.
We fly into Katmandu (4590′) on Oct 21 after spending a few days sightseeing in New Delhi. From Katmandu we will be taking a short flight (or possibly helicopter) to Lukla (9400′) on Oct 23. This is also our first day of hiking and it will be an easy one as we begin the acclimation process. The next day we head up Namche Bazaar (11,300′) where we spend the next few days doing easy hikes to get further acclimated.
After a few days in Namche Bazaar we head west to the village of Thame (12,400′) where Alpine Ascents has several cultural events planned, including a visit to a Buddhist Monastery.
From Thame (Oct 27) we spend the next four days heading East and North, visiting villages and getting further acclimated, reaching the village of Pheriche (13,900′) on October 30.
The next two days we really begin to ascend arriving at Gorak Shep (16,900′) on November 1. Weather permitting, we ascend a small peak, Kala Pattar (18,500′) which is high point of the trek and is supposed to have great views of Everest. Gorak Shep is the last village on the way to EBC.
The following day (Nov 2) we trek to Everest Base Camp and the furthest point north on our trek. We do not spend the night, descending to Lobuche (16,200′) for the evening.
From Labuche we basically retrace our path, taking four days, and arriving back in Lukla on November 6.
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