Everest Three Passes Trek

Fly 35 minutes from Kathmandu to Lukla. In spring and autumn, when Lukla flights run from Ramechhap, it follows a 4 to 5 hour pre-dawn drive and a flight of about 20 minutes. Land at Tenzing-Hillary Airport, a short sloping runway at 2,860 metres. Your guide sorts the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit while the porters load the bags.

Walk three to four hours, mostly downhill, along the Dudh Koshi River to Phakding at 2,610 metres. You pass your first mani stones, carved with Buddhist prayers, and learn the trail's first habit: keep them on your right and walk past on the left, as the Sherpa families here do. Tonight there is a river under the window and nothing else planned.

Summary: A 35-min flight to Lukla (2,860 m), or a Ramechhap drive and flight in peak season. Then 3 to 4 hours, 6 km, mostly downhill. Overnight in Phakding (2,610 m).

After breakfast, walk 12 km deeper into the Khumbu, crossing the Dudh Koshi several times on steel suspension bridges hung with prayer flags. 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: step to the mountain side and let them pass.

After Jorsalle, cross the high Tenzing-Hillary Suspension Bridge and start the long zigzag up to Namche, most of an hour of steady climbing and harder than any walk around MacRitchie. On a clear day Everest shows briefly through a gap. Namche Bazaar, stacked in a horseshoe at 3,440 metres, is the biggest village you see until you return on day 16.

Summary: The first real climb: 12 km and 6 to 7 hours over suspension bridges, park entry at Monjo and a steep hill to Namche Bazaar. Overnight at 3,440 m.

Acclimatisation days are slower days, not rest days: climb high, sleep low. After breakfast, hike above Namche towards Syangboche and the Hotel Everest View at around 3,880 metres, where on a clear morning Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam stand in one line. It is your first proper look at the mountain you will walk around for two weeks.

Spend the afternoon in Namche, with its bakeries, gear shops and Saturday market. If you still need microspikes for Cho La, this is the last good place to buy them. In the evening your guide checks your oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter, the first of many daily readings. Drink more water than feels necessary and rest well.

Summary: A 3 to 4 hour, 5 km hike to the Hotel Everest View viewpoint (about 3,880 m) for a first clear view of Everest. Free afternoon. Overnight in Namche (3,440 m).

After breakfast, follow a quieter trail high above the Dudh Koshi, with Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam showing through breaks in the rhododendron and pine forest. After a drop to the river at Phunki Tenga comes a long, steady climb to Tengboche at 3,867 metres, home to the most important Buddhist monastery in the Khumbu.

If the timing works, your guide takes you into the monastery courtyard, where the monks may be at afternoon prayers, the long horns carrying across the ridge. Then walk gently down through forest to Deboche, much calmer than Namche. This is the first properly cold evening, and the stove in the teahouse dining room becomes everyone's favourite spot.

Summary: 5 to 6 hours, 10.5 km, through forest with Everest views, a climb to Tengboche Monastery (3,867 m) and a short walk down to Deboche for the night.

After breakfast, walk on as the trees thin out. Past Pangboche, whose monastery is the oldest in the Khumbu, the hillsides turn to juniper scrub and open slope, and Ama Dablam is close enough to trace its ridges with a finger. The trail crosses the Imja Khola and climbs steadily into the wide valley below Island Peak.

Dingboche, at 4,410 metres, is a village of stone-walled potato fields spread across a windy valley floor. The effort adds up here: one flight of teahouse stairs takes more breath than a full HDB stairwell at home, and an afternoon nap helps. Your guide watches your pace and oximeter readings closely from now on, as the next week is the highest of the trip.

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

On the Three Passes route this day matters more than on any other trek. After breakfast, climb the Nangkartshang ridge behind the village towards the viewpoint at around 5,083 metres, going as high as feels right for you. Makalu, Lhotse and Ama Dablam come into one wide view, and it is your first time above 5,000 metres, a useful rehearsal.

The climb is short but properly breathless. Back in Dingboche by lunch, the rest of the day is free: tea, a book, socks drying on a stone wall. Your guide uses today's oximeter readings and how you managed the ridge to judge the three passes ahead. Nobody is hurrying you here, and that is the point.

Summary: A 4 to 5 hour, 5 km hike on Nangkartshang (up to about 5,083 m) for views of Makalu, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Restful afternoon. Overnight in Dingboche (4,410 m).

After breakfast, take a short walk up the Imja valley, away from the main Everest Base Camp trail and towards the great wall of Lhotse's south face. The path climbs gently beside the river, past yak pastures and stone huts, with Island Peak rising ahead and Ama Dablam now seen from behind.

Chhukung, at 4,730 metres, is a small cluster of teahouses used mostly by trekkers heading for Kongma La and climbers bound for Island Peak. Spend the afternoon resting, eating well and packing for tomorrow: headlamp charged, water bottles filled, layers laid out in the order you will need them. Most people go to bed early here.

Summary: A short 3 to 4 hour, 5 km walk up the Imja valley beneath Lhotse's south face. Free afternoon to rest and prepare for the first pass. Overnight in Chhukung (4,730 m).

Start in the dark for the first and highest pass. From Chhukung the trail climbs steeply over rock and loose scree, one slow breath per step, past small frozen lakes to Kongma La at 5,535 metres, marked by cairns and prayer flags. The view opens both ways: Makalu and the Imja valley behind, the Khumbu Glacier and Lobuche ahead.

The top is only half the day. The way down is steep and loose, and it ends with an hour or more picking a route across the glacier's moraine to Lobuche, at 4,940 metres. You arrive tired, and with a quiet, specific satisfaction: one of three passes done, and the hardest climb behind you.

Summary: A pre-dawn start and 8 to 9 hours, 10 km, over Kongma La (5,535 m), the highest pass, then steeply down and across the Khumbu Glacier. Overnight in Lobuche (4,940 m).

After breakfast, walk the rough moraine beside the Khumbu Glacier, slow going, with Pumori and Nuptse filling the view ahead. Gorak Shep, at around 5,164 metres, is the last settlement before Base Camp. Drop your bags at the teahouse, eat an early lunch and set out with a light day pack.

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

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

Everest's summit is hidden from Base Camp behind Nuptse, so the alarm goes off before dawn. The climb up Kala Patthar from Gorak Shep is short in distance and long in effort, in sharp cold. At the top, at 5,545 metres and the highest point of the whole trek, the sun reaches Everest first, then Nuptse, Lhotse and Pumori in turn.

After breakfast back at Gorak Shep, the day turns west. Retrace the trail towards Lobuche, then leave the Base Camp route for a quieter hillside path, with Cholatse and Taboche ahead and the milky blue of Chola Tsho lake below. Dzongla, at 4,830 metres, is a handful of teahouses at the foot of Cholatse. It is a long day, and the dining room goes quiet early.

Summary: A pre-dawn climb of Kala Patthar (5,545 m) for sunrise over Everest, then west past Chola Tsho lake. 8 to 9 hours, 15 km. Overnight in Dzongla (4,830 m).

Cho La is the pass people talk about afterwards. Leave Dzongla on an easy stretch, then climb steeply over rock, hands on boulders in places, to the edge of the Cho La glacier, where the microspikes come out. Cross the gently sloping ice with Cholatse beside you to the prayer flags on the pass at 5,420 metres, halfway between the Everest and Gokyo valleys.

The west side is much steeper, loose rock where your guide sets the pace and every step is placed with care. The trail then eases down a valley to Thagnak, at 4,700 metres, a few lodges on the edge of the Ngozumpa Glacier. It is a tiring day for body and mind, and it ends with the plain pride of having done something you were not sure you could.

Summary: An early start, a steep climb and a glacier crossing in microspikes to Cho La (5,420 m), then steep rocky ground down. 7 to 8 hours, 9 km. Overnight in Thagnak (4,700 m).

A short morning after the biggest day of the trek. From Thagnak, cross the Ngozumpa Glacier, often called the longest glacier in Nepal, a grey landscape of rubble and small ice-cliffed ponds still moving under your feet. On the far side, Gokyo sits on the shore of Dudh Pokhari, one of a chain of turquoise lakes protected as a Ramsar wetland since 2007.

Reach Gokyo by late morning, with the afternoon free. If you have the energy and your guide agrees, climb Gokyo Ri, at 5,357 metres, for a view of Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu above the lakes and the glacier. Cloud often builds in the valley by afternoon, so the view is never promised, but tomorrow's pass looks over the same lakes.

Summary: A 2 to 3 hour, 4 km glacier crossing to Gokyo, plus about 3 hours for the optional Gokyo Ri climb (5,357 m). Overnight in Gokyo (4,790 m).

After breakfast, set out for the last pass, the one most people remember for the view. Leave Gokyo along the lakeshore and climb steadily west, the final section up stone stairs laid into the slope. From Renjo La, at 5,360 metres, Dudh Pokhari lies below, the Ngozumpa Glacier beyond, and Everest, Lhotse and Makalu line the far skyline.

From the top you can pick out the passes and valleys you have crossed this week. The west side is steeper, past small lakes and down into the quiet upper Bhote Koshi valley. Lungden, at 4,380 metres, is a few teahouses on the old trade route to Tibet, with very few other trekkers. Three passes done, and every day from here goes downhill.

Summary: 7 to 8 hours, 11 km, up stone stairs to Renjo La (5,360 m), the last pass, with views over the Gokyo lakes to Everest, then steeply down. Overnight in Lungden (4,380 m).

After breakfast, begin a long but gentle walk down the Bhote Koshi valley, a route few Everest trekkers ever see. Pass yak pastures and summer settlements to Thame, at around 3,800 metres, where Tenzing Norgay spent his childhood, its monastery set into the cliffs above the houses. Juniper and then trees return, with the smell of wood smoke.

Somewhere on the way down most people notice they are breathing easily again. The trail rejoins the main route above Namche in the late afternoon, and after two weeks in small teahouses the town feels almost like a city: a hot shower, a proper coffee, a menu with more than one page. Settle in for the night in Namche.

Summary: 6 to 7 hours, 18 km, down the Bhote Koshi valley through Thame (about 3,800 m) and back to Namche. Overnight in Namche Bazaar (3,440 m).

After breakfast, walk the last trekking day down the Namche hill, over the same suspension bridges and through Monjo and Phakding, this time without the nervous energy of the way up. The final stretch from the river back up to Lukla is a short climb that surprises tired legs, one last reminder that the Khumbu does not do flat.

Arriving in Lukla brings a real sense of completion, and it is customary to thank your guide and porters here, the people who carried your bags and watched your breathing over three high passes. The evening is for a celebration meal and an early night before the morning flight.

Summary: The last walk: 6 to 7 hours, 20 km, back through Monjo and Phakding, and a farewell evening with your guide and porters. Overnight in Lukla (2,860 m).

Take an early 35-minute flight from Lukla for one last look at the valleys you have walked, smaller from above and more remarkable for having crossed them. In the spring and autumn peak seasons, Lukla flights land at Ramechhap instead of Kathmandu, followed by a road transfer of 4 to 5 hours. 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 afternoon is left free. Check back into the Mercure Kathmandu Sukedhara Heights and the time is yours: a long shower, clean clothes and a bed that is not a sleeping bag.

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

Your final morning runs on your flight schedule rather than the trail's. Enjoy a slow breakfast and, if your flight allows, some last shopping in the busy lanes of Thamel, before a private 30-minute transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for your flight home to Changi Airport.

Back in Singapore the MRT will run to the minute, the air-conditioning will feel colder than you remember, and a flight of stairs will feel like nothing at all. You will notice all three, and you will know exactly why.

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