Gokyo Lakes and Everest Base Camp Trek via Cho La Pass

You leave Thagnak at about four in the morning, walk an hour on rough ground, then climb a steep boulder chute to the snow line. The last stretch to the top is a short glacier, flat but slippery, which you cross in microspikes and in some years alongside a fixed line. The pass itself is 5,420 m, covered in prayer flags and usually windy. The eastern descent is loose moraine that takes concentration for two hours, and then it eases all the way to Dzongla.

No climbing experience and no technical crampons. Microspikes are enough in the normal seasons and we provide them, along with a pole each. In February, early March or after heavy snow a proper crampon and a rope become sensible, and on those dates we would talk you out of the crossing rather than equip you for it.

It happens most seasons, usually after a heavy snowfall, and the honest answer is that the guide decides on the morning. If we cannot cross, you walk back down the Gokyo valley and up the Khumbu side to Base Camp instead, which takes two days more and is why the itinerary has slack in it. You will still reach Base Camp and Kala Patthar. What you would lose is the pass.

Not once you have started up the chute. Thagnak has three basic lodges and Dzongla a few more, and between them there is nothing at all: no teahouse, no village and no helicopter landing site on the top. That is the reason for the early start, the reason we turn a slow party around, and the reason your kit for that day is packed the night before.

It is four days longer, it costs more, and it shows you two valleys rather than one. You get the Gokyo lakes and the view from Gokyo Ri, which is the better view, and Base Camp and Kala Patthar, which is the better story. You also cross a 5,420 m pass on ice. If you only want Base Camp, the classic route is the sensible choice and we will say so.

Take the Gokyo Lakes trek if you want the lakes and the summit view in fifteen gentler days with no ice. Take this one if you want Base Camp as well and are prepared for the crossing that links them. A useful test: if the pass were cancelled and you had to walk down the valley and up the other side, would you still be glad you came? If yes, this is your trek.

Fit enough for four to seven hours a day for fourteen days, with one day of seven to nine on rough and icy ground. That is one notch above the classic Base Camp trek, and the notch is stamina rather than skill. The training plan on this page is what we would give a reasonably active person fourteen weeks out.

No upper limit, and we have taken trekkers in their late sixties over the Cho La. The youngest we accept on this route is sixteen, which is higher than our limit for the classic trek, because of the pass. What matters is a history of walking on rough ground, not the year on the passport.

Yes, at $2,790 rather than $2,290, because a guide and a porter are paid for one person instead of shared. Since 2023 a licensed guide has been required for foreign trekkers in Nepal's national parks, and on this route it would be the wrong corner to cut in any case.

By the time you cross the Cho La you will have slept six nights above 3,400 m, climbed Gokyo Ri at 5,357 m and spent two nights at 4,790 m. That is a better preparation for 5,420 m than the classic route gives anybody for Base Camp. The order matters: if we walked this the other way round you would meet the pass on day five and it would be a different trek entirely.

At Gorak Shep, the highest night, expect −10°C to −20°C after dark depending on the month. On the pass at first light, minus fifteen with wind on top of it is normal in April and colder in November. Days on the trail in the walking seasons are 8°C to 15°C and pleasant in the sun. No bedroom on this route is heated.

Your guide takes your oxygen saturation every evening and writes it down, so a decline shows up early rather than as a crisis. Mild cases usually settle with a rest day or a short descent. If they do not, we go down. There are Himalayan Rescue Association clinics at Machhermo on day 6 and Pheriche on day 13, and helicopter evacuation is possible from every village on this route except the pass itself.

A policy covering trekking to 6,000 m, helicopter evacuation and repatriation, and one that does not exclude glacier travel or the use of microspikes, which some policies quietly do. We ask to see the certificate before you fly to Lukla. A rescue runs to $3,000 or $5,000 and the helicopter will not lift without a guarantee of payment.

Basic, and the plainest nights of the trek. Three lodges at Thagnak and a handful at Dzongla, plywood walls, no shower, solar power that may not stretch to charging your phone, and a short menu. They exist to serve one pass, they fill early in October, and both are worth being cheerful about for one night each.

Everest Link cards work at Namche, Gokyo and Gorak Shep for about $10 for 10 GB, slowly. Ncell and NTC cover most of both valleys. There is nothing at all on the pass and very little at Thagnak, so tell people at home that you will be out of contact for about two days around day 10.

As far as Gokyo, for $5 to $10, usually gas heated. After that there is nothing until you come back down to Pheriche on day 13, which is four nights. Wet wipes cover it, everybody is in the same state, and the shower at Namche on day 14 is one of the better moments of the trek.

Your duffel goes to a porter shared with one other trekker, with a hard limit of 20 kg between you. You carry a daypack of 6 to 8 kg with water, a warm layer, camera and snacks. On pass day that daypack also carries your lunch and an extra litre, because there is nowhere to buy anything between Thagnak and Dzongla.

Two, and both are in your price. The Sagarmatha National Park entry permit at NPR 3,390, issued by the national parks department, and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit at NPR 2,000, checked at Lukla and Monjo. There is no separate permit for the Cho La or for the Gokyo valley. You do not need a TIMS card here, whatever other pages tell you.

$350 to $550 in small notes, changed into rupees in Kathmandu. That covers showers, charging, wifi, drinks, snacks and tips over eighteen days. The highest cash machine is in Namche, it is frequently out of money, and nothing beyond it takes a card, least of all the two lodges either side of the pass.

Day 17 is held back for exactly that, because Lukla closes for cloud several times a month in every season. If the airport stays shut past three days we switch you to a lower trek of the same quality at no extra cost, or you can fly out by helicopter for around $500 a seat. Book your flight home with a clear day after day 18 regardless.

For April and October, four to six months out. Lukla seats and the small lodges at Dzongla and Thagnak are the two things that run out first on this route, and they run out well before anything else does. Outside those months eight weeks is comfortable and two weeks is possible.

Yes, and most people alter something. Add a day at Gokyo for the fourth and fifth lakes, walk out over the Renjo La instead of back down the valley, spend the extra night at Dzongla rather than Lobuche, or fly home from Gorak Shep by helicopter. From a party of five a private trek on your own dates costs the same as joining a group departure.

Treat the days before the pass as the preparation for it rather than as the easy part. Walk slowly up the Gokyo valley, drink more than you feel like, eat at Thagnak even though you will not want to, and go to bed at eight the night before. Everyone who has a bad morning on the Cho La skipped at least two of those.