After a 26-days of hiking at Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Basecamp, we spent a few days at Pokhara. White water rafting and Chitwan National Park from Pokhara were pretty relaxing and much needed break from the hike.
Came back to Kathmandu and flew to Lukla for the next adventure.
Everest Basecamp this time- via Gokyo Ri !!
No of days: 16 days ( EBC without Gokyo-Ri can be done in 10-12 days)
Maximum Elevation: 5550 m (Kalapathir)
Best Months: March, April, May, September, October, November. We hiked in October.
Start From: Kathmandu End at: Kathmandu
No. of hours of walking: At a moderate pace anywhere from 6-10 hours.
Read Annapurna Trek for training, food, stay, packing list and logistics
Everest Basecamp hike is not much different from Annapurna area in terms of logistics and packing.
Itinerary:
Day 1: 35min flight (assuming the flight starts on time and weather cooperates to take off on that day) to Lukla(2840m) and 2:30hrs hike to Phakding (2660m)
Day 2: 6 hour hike from Phakding to Namche Bazaar (3440m)
Day 3: 6 hour hike to Phorche Thanga (3680m)
Day 4: Hike to Machharma (4470m)
Day 5: Acclimatization day
Day 6: Trek to Gokyo (4790m)
Day 7: Trek to Gokyo-Ri and back to Thanga (4500m)
Day 8: Trek to Phorste (3810m)
Day 9: Trek to Phiriche (4200 m)
Day 10: Trek to Lobuche (4910m)
Day 11: Trek to Gorakshep (5156m) and trek to Everest basecamp (5357m)
Day 12: 7-8 hour hike to Kalapathir (5550 m) and back to Phiriche (4243 m)
Day 13: Phiriche to Tengboche (3830 m)
Day 14: Trek to Monja (2835 m)
Day 15: Trek to Lukla
Day 16: Fly to Kathmandu
This was the original plan and we had an awesome start of the hike with Lukla flight being on time and no hiccups.
Once we reached Machharma on Day 4, there was an unexpected snow storm that came our way covering the region with few feet of snow that caused avalanches and blocking the access to Gokyo pass.
We stayed put at Machharma as per original plan for the acclimatization and hoped for the storm to subside.
But, we had no option but to turn around the next day as the snow accumulation was way too much that trails were all covered and no way to navigate.
So, Day 6 we traced back to Namche Bazaar and took the following route to reach Everest Base camp.
Day 6: Machharma to Namche Bazaar
Day 7: Namche Bazzar to Tengboche (3830 m)
Day 8: Trek to Dingboche (4440 m)
Day 9: Hike to Luboche via Dungla
Day 10: To Gorakshep
Day 11: Kalapathir
Day 12: Everest Base Camp and Pheriche
Day 13: To Tengboche
Day 14: To Monja
Day 15: Lukla
Day 16: Fly out to Kathmandu
