Everest Base Camp Trek

After breakfast, walk 12 km deeper into the Khumbu on the first real climb. The trail crosses the Dudh Koshi several times on suspension bridges hung with prayer flags, and at Monjo a ranger checks your Sagarmatha National Park permit by hand. Yak and dzopkyo trains share the path, their bells heard long before they appear, so step to the mountain side.

After Jorsalle, cross the high Tenzing-Hillary Suspension Bridge and begin the long zigzag up to Namche, most of an hour of steady climbing that tires the legs properly for the first time. On a clear day, your first distant view of Everest appears from a bend on this climb. Check into a teahouse in Namche Bazaar, terraced into a horseshoe-shaped hillside at 3,440 metres, the largest village for the next ten days.

Summary: Walk 12 km, 6 to 7 hours, over suspension bridges and into the national park at Monjo, then the steep climb to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m). Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, walk up above Namche to acclimatise, following the rule of climb high, sleep low. The path leads towards Syangboche and the Hotel Everest View at around 3,880 metres, where on a clear morning Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam line up across the skyline. It is your first clear view of Everest, still far away, but no longer a photograph.

Return to Namche for a free afternoon in the Khumbu's trading town, with bakeries, gear shops and a Saturday market where traders come up from the lower valleys. In the evening your guide checks your oxygen level with a pulse oximeter, the first of many daily readings. Drink more water than feels necessary and keep the evening quiet.

Summary: An acclimatisation hike of 5.4 km, 3 to 4 hours, to the Hotel Everest View (about 3,880 m) for your first clear view of Everest. Second night in Namche (3,440 m).

After breakfast, follow a quieter trail high above the Dudh Koshi, with Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam showing through gaps in the rhododendron and pine forest. Drop to the river at Phunki Tenga, then take on a long, steady climb to Tengboche at 3,867 metres, home to the most important Buddhist monastery in the Khumbu, with Ama Dablam rising behind it.

If the timing works, your guide takes you into the monastery courtyard, where monks may be at afternoon prayers, with deep horns and chanting carrying across the ridge. Then walk gently down through forest to Deboche, a small village that feels calm after Namche's shops. Check into your teahouse for the first cold evening of the trek, where the stove becomes the centre of the room.

Summary: Walk 10.5 km, 5 to 6 hours, with views of Everest and Ama Dablam, climbing to Tengboche Monastery (3,867 m) and down to Deboche (about 3,820 m). Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, walk through thinning trees to Pangboche, whose monastery is the oldest in the Khumbu. Beyond it the land turns to juniper scrub and open hillside, and Ama Dablam is now close enough to pick out its separate ridges. Cross the Imja Khola and climb steadily into the valley below Island Peak.

Arrive in Dingboche at 4,410 metres, a Sherpa village of stone-walled potato fields spread across a wide, windy valley and among the highest farmed land in the world. The altitude is adding up now, and a flight of teahouse stairs takes more breath than it should, so an afternoon nap is part of the plan. From here your guide watches your pace and oximeter reading closely.

Summary: Walk 11.5 km, 5 to 6 hours, above the treeline via Pangboche to Dingboche (4,410 m), with Ama Dablam close alongside. Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, set out on the second and last planned acclimatisation day. Climb the Nangkartshang ridge behind the village, going only as far as feels right for you. The climb is short but truly breathless at this height, and the reward is one wide view of Makalu, Lhotse and Ama Dablam, the broadest on the route so far.

Walk back down to Dingboche for lunch and a free afternoon. Enjoy tea, a book and laundry drying on a stone wall, in a village with no roads and no traffic at 4,410 metres. Keep the evening easy and drink plenty of water, as the next two days climb into the bare, high country below Everest.

Summary: An acclimatisation hike of 5.1 km, 3 to 4 hours, on the Nangkartshang ridge for views of Makalu, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Second night in Dingboche (4,410 m).

After breakfast, walk 8 km into bare country with almost no plants left. A gentle traverse leads to Dughla, then a steep climb reaches the Thukla Pass, where stone memorials to climbers who died on Everest and nearby peaks stand in rows among prayer flags. It is a quiet stop, and most trekkers stay longer than they expected.

Beyond Thukla, follow the edge of the Khumbu Glacier's moraine, with Pumori and Nuptse filling the skyline ahead. Arrive in Lobuche at 4,940 metres, little more than a handful of teahouses. Rooms are cold and simple, and water bottles can freeze on the windowsill overnight, but the highest peaks on the trek are now very close.

Summary: Walk 8 km, 5 to 6 hours, via the Thukla Pass memorials and along the Khumbu Glacier to Lobuche (4,940 m). Basic high-altitude teahouse overnight.

After an early breakfast, walk from Lobuche over the rough rubble of the Khumbu Glacier's moraine, slow and uneven going, to Gorak Shep at around 5,164 metres, the last settlement before Base Camp. Drop your bags at the teahouse, eat an early lunch and set out again with a light day pack.

The final two hours cross loose rock and ice beside the glacier, with the Khumbu Icefall tumbling down from Everest ahead. Everest Base Camp, at 5,364 metres, is the working foot of the mountain where expeditions begin, marked by rocks draped in prayer flags and, in spring, climbers' tents. Walk back to Gorak Shep for the coldest night of the trip.

Summary: Walk 11.7 km, 7 to 8 hours, to Gorak Shep, then on to Everest Base Camp (5,364 m) beside the Khumbu Icefall and back. Teahouse overnight in Gorak Shep (about 5,164 m).

Wake before dawn, as Everest's summit is hidden from Base Camp behind Nuptse. The climb up Kala Patthar from Gorak Shep is short but hard in the dark and cold, one slow step per breath. At the top, at around 5,545 metres, the sun reaches Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse and Pumori in turn, the view most trekkers remember the trip by.

Return to Gorak Shep for breakfast, then walk down through Lobuche and past Thukla to Pheriche at around 4,240 metres, with the air thickening as you lose height. Pheriche has a Himalayan Rescue Association aid post, set up in 1973 and staffed by volunteer doctors in the spring and autumn seasons. Check into your teahouse with the hardest part of the trek behind you.

Summary: A pre-dawn climb of Kala Patthar (about 5,545 m) for sunrise on Everest, then down to Pheriche (about 4,240 m). 15.2 km, 7 to 8 hours. Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, start the longest walking day of the trek, 19.5 km but mostly downhill through country that now feels familiar. Retrace the trail past Pangboche and back up to Tengboche and its monastery, then walk down through rhododendron forest to the Dudh Koshi.

Somewhere on the way most trekkers notice they are breathing easily again, sleeping better and eating more. After the final climb around the hillside, reach Namche by late afternoon. After a week above the treeline it feels almost like a small city, with a hot shower, a proper coffee from one of the bakeries and your first real rest since Base Camp.

Summary: Walk 19.5 km, 6 to 7 hours, mostly downhill through Tengboche back to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m). Teahouse overnight in Namche.

After breakfast, set out on the last trekking day, back down the Namche hill and across the same suspension bridges through Monjo and Phakding, this time without the nerves of the way up. The final stretch from the river up to Lukla is a short climb that surprises tired legs, a last reminder that the Khumbu is never flat.

Arrive in Lukla in the afternoon with a real sense of achievement. This is the time to thank your guide and porters, the people who carried your bags and watched your breathing for eleven days. Enjoy a celebration dinner together, then an early night before the morning flight.

Summary: Walk 20 km, 6 to 7 hours, retracing the trail through Monjo and Phakding to Lukla (2,860 m). A farewell evening with your guide and porters, teahouse overnight.

After an early breakfast, fly out of Lukla, about 35 minutes to Kathmandu, with a last look down at the valleys you have walked. In the spring and autumn peak seasons, flights land at Ramechhap instead, followed by a road transfer of 4 to 5 hours, and your guide confirms the routing the evening before.

Mountain flights depend on the weather and a delay of a day is not unusual, which is why this day is kept free. Once back at the Mercure Kathmandu Sukedhara Heights, the afternoon is yours, with a shower that stays hot, a menu longer than one page and the welcome ordinary of city life after eleven days on the trail.

Summary: Morning flight from Lukla to Kathmandu, about 35 minutes, or to Ramechhap with a 4 to 5 hour drive in peak season. Free afternoon at your hotel in Kathmandu (1,400 m).

Your final morning runs on your flight schedule rather than the trail's. Enjoy a slow breakfast at your hotel and, if your flight time allows, some last shopping in Thamel, Kathmandu's busy traveller district of narrow lanes, trekking shops and cafes.

A private transfer takes you to Tribhuvan International Airport, about 30 minutes away, for the flight home. Back in Singapore the MRT will run exactly on time, as always, and the air-conditioning will feel colder than you remember. You will notice both in a way you did not before you left.

Summary: Breakfast, free time depending on your flight, and a private transfer of about 30 minutes to Tribhuvan International Airport for your flight home.