Everest Base Camp Luxury Trek, with Helicopter Return

Kathmandu or Ramechhap, depending on the month

Out of the two busiest stretches of the year the flight leaves Kathmandu and takes about 35 minutes. Through most of March to May and late September to November, air traffic control moves Lukla departures to Manthali airport at Ramechhap to take the pressure off Kathmandu. That means a four to five hour drive leaving Kathmandu around two in the morning, then a twenty minute flight. It is the same trek and a considerably worse night. We tell you which one applies to your dates before you book, not after.

Fifteen kilos, and it is weighed

The allowance is 15 kg in total: 10 kg checked and 5 kg of hand baggage. Excess is charged at roughly $1.50 a kilo and it is enforced, because the aircraft is a nineteen-seat Twin Otter or Dornier and the runway is 527 metres long on a slope. Anything you are not taking up the hill is stored free at our office in Kathmandu.

Delays, and what we do about them

Lukla is closed by cloud several times a month in every season. A day lost is common and two is not rare, and this itinerary has no spare day in it, which is a thing to know rather than a thing to discover. If the flight is cancelled for more than three days we change the itinerary to an equally good trek at a lower altitude rather than compress this one, and we do not charge you for the change. There is no spare day in this itinerary, which is a consequence of the twelve-day format rather than an oversight, and it is the single strongest argument for booking your international flight home with two clear days after this trek rather than one.

Book your flight home with a day to spare

Whatever your itinerary says, book an international ticket that leaves at least one clear day after your scheduled return to Kathmandu. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole trip and the thing we most often wish people had done.

The helicopter out, and what it needs

A single-engine machine lifts from Gorak Shep at 5,164 m, which is close to the practical ceiling for a useful load, so it flies early in the morning when the air is coldest and densest and it carries fewer people than the same aircraft would at sea level. It needs a clear window at Gorak Shep and a clear one at Lukla, where it usually refuels. In good weather it is airborne within a couple of hours of the Kala Patthar descent and you are in Kathmandu by lunchtime.

And what happens when it cannot fly

You walk, which is why the guides on this trip carry the classic itinerary in their heads as well as this one. If the weather closes in at Gorak Shep we drop to Pheriche or Namche on foot, where the aircraft can very often get in when it cannot reach 5,164 m, and fly from there. If nothing flies at all, the walk out to Lukla is three days and we cover the additional lodge nights. What we cannot do is give you back the days, which is the honest limit of what a helicopter itinerary can promise.

Weight, again

The same 15 kg allowance applies on the way in, and on the way out the helicopter has its own load calculation that is stricter than the aeroplane's. Nothing you buy in Namche is a problem; a second duffel of things bought in Kathmandu on day 2 and carried up the hill is.

11 nights, and what each one is

Heat, hot water, power and signal

Heating

In your room at Phakding, Namche and Dingboche, which is the single biggest difference this trek buys. At Tengboche, Lobuche and Gorak Shep it is one stove in the dining room like everybody else.

Hot shower

Included and en suite as far as Dingboche. Nothing above Lobuche, for anybody, at any price.

Charging

Free in the upgraded lodges, in your room. $3–5 a device at Lobuche and Gorak Shep.

Wifi

Included in the upgraded lodges and genuinely usable. Everest Link cards above them, about $10 for 10 GB, working as far as Gorak Shep, badly.

Phone signal

Ncell and NTC cover most of the route to Lobuche. Buy the SIM in Kathmandu.

Water

Filtered water provided free in the upgraded lodges. Boiled water $1–4 a litre higher up. We would rather you used either than bought plastic.

Bedding

Duvets and proper mattresses to Dingboche. A sleeping bag rated to −15°C for Lobuche and Gorak Shep, which we provide.

Laundry

Same-day at Namche and Dingboche, included. It sounds trivial and after five days it is not.

If you eat differently

Twelve weeks, and what to do in each of them

Written for somebody who walks a bit and does not train. If you already run or cycle regularly, start at the eight-week block. Nothing here needs a gym.

1. 1

   Twelve weeks out

   Build the base

   Three cardio sessions a week, 45 minutes each, at a pace where you can still hold a conversation. Walking, cycling, swimming, rowing, it does not matter which. If you do nothing else on this list, do this.

2. 2

   Ten weeks out

   Add the hills

   Replace one session with a hill walk, an hour, with 300 m of ascent. Add a second strength session: squats, step-ups, lunges, calf raises. Your quads take more punishment coming down than going up.

3. 3

   Eight weeks out

   Put the pack on

   Start walking with the daypack you will actually carry, loaded to 6 kg. Wear the boots you will trek in on every one of these walks. Blisters are the second most common reason people struggle and they are entirely preventable.

4. 4

   Six weeks out

   Back-to-back days

   One long day at the weekend, four to five hours, then a second walk of two to three hours the next morning on tired legs. This is the single most useful thing on the list, because consecutive days are what the trek actually is.

5. 5

   Four weeks out

   Longest day

   Six to seven hours with 800 m of ascent and the same coming down. If you finish that able to eat a meal and sleep normally, you are ready.

6. 6

   Two weeks out

   Taper

   Halve the volume, keep the frequency. Nothing you do in the last fortnight makes you fitter and quite a lot of it can injure you. Sleep instead.

What we do about it, in order

1. 1

   Twice a day, we measure

   Your guide carries a pulse oximeter and takes your oxygen saturation and pulse every evening and again on any morning you are not right. The numbers are written down, so a slide over three days is visible rather than a matter of opinion.

2. 2

   If it is mild, we stop

   A rest day where you are, or a short descent to the last village and back up the following day. Most cases end here and the trek carries on.

3. 3

   If it is not, we go down

   Descent is the only treatment that works and 500 m of it usually does. This is not negotiable and is not a decision we put to a vote.

4. 4

   If we have to, we fly

   Helicopter evacuation from anywhere on this route, arranged in a call, usually airborne within the hour in daylight. This is what your insurance is for and why we ask to see it: the bill is $3,000 to $5,000 and the helicopter will not lift without a guarantee.

5. 5

   There is a hospital on the way

   The Himalayan Rescue Association clinic at Pheriche, 4,371 m, is staffed by volunteer doctors through both trekking seasons and sits on our route on day 11.

Who walks with you

A senior government-licensed guide with wilderness first aid training leads every departure, and on this trip there is one porter per traveller rather than one between two. That is a real change rather than a listed feature: it means your duffel is not shared and it means the party moves at the pace of the people in it. From 9 travellers a second guide joins.

What a porter carries, and what they do not

Twenty kilos, which is your duffel and one other. That is below the 25 kg the trekking association permits and well below what you will see on the trail. If your bag is over, it is split rather than piled on. Porters carry loads, not daypacks: your water, camera, jacket and the day's snacks stay with you.

How they are paid and insured

Salary, insurance, food and lodging for every guide and porter are inside the price you pay, not something raised on the trail. Every one of them is insured for altitude and for helicopter evacuation on the same terms we ask of you. There is a long history in this industry of porters carrying too much in the wrong boots for money nobody would take at home, and the only way not to be part of it is to pay for it in the package price.

Tipping

Customary, not compulsory, and never a substitute for the wage. What is usual for this trip is $200 to $300 per traveller for the whole team, handed over together on the last evening rather than daily. Your guide will not ask and will be embarrassed if you do it in front of the group.

Water, and the bottles we do not sell you

A traveller drinking bottled water gets through around 30 plastic bottles on this trip, every one of which was carried in and has to be carried out again. Boiled water is available at every lodge for a dollar or two a litre and we would rather you bought that. Take purification as a backup, not as your plan.

What we carry out

Everything we carry in that is not food. The Khumbu has a rubbish problem it did not create and cannot solve on its own, and the least any operator can do is not add to it.

Where the money stays

The lodges are family businesses in the villages you pass through. The guides and porters live in this district. The permits fund Sagarmatha National Park and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality. Almost all of what you pay is spent within a few days' walk of the trail, which is the argument for using a Nepali operator rather than a foreign one that subcontracts to us anyway.

It is a place people live

Ask before photographing anybody. Walk on the mountain side of a mule train, not the drop side, and let it pass. Monasteries welcome visitors and they are not attractions; take your hat off and your shoes off, and if a service is happening, wait.

How to start

Write to us or send a message on WhatsApp with your dates. On this trek in particular, tell us your party size in the first message: the helicopter is chartered by the aircraft rather than by the seat, so whether there are two of you or five changes the price more than anything else about the trip.

The deposit

Thirty per cent to hold your dates, and the balance when you arrive in Kathmandu, in cash or by card. We ask for a passport copy, your insurance certificate and any dietary or medical notes at the same time.

Paying

Bank transfer, or card through a secure link. Card payments carry the bank's fee of about 4 per cent, which we show you before you pay rather than after. The balance in Kathmandu can be US dollars, pounds, euros or Nepali rupees.

If you cancel

More than 30 days out, the deposit transfers to any other date or trip we run, with no time limit. Inside 30 days the deposit is retained, because the permits, the flights and the crew are booked by then. If we cancel for any reason other than weather, you get everything back.

Private, or with a group

Both cost the same for a party of five or more. A private departure runs on your dates at your pace and can be arranged for one person; a group departure runs on the dates in the table above. Most people book privately and are surprised it costs no more.

Booking late

Three weeks is comfortable. The constraint is the upgraded lodges rather than the flights, because there are only a handful of them in the Khumbu and in October they are full. For an October departure we want three months.