Gokyo Lakes Trek

After breakfast, set out on the first real climb of the trek. The trail crosses the Dudh Koshi several times on steel 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 hillside and let them pass.

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. Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa trading town, sits in a horseshoe-shaped bowl at 3,440 metres. Check into your teahouse, where a hot drink in the dining room feels well earned.

Summary: A 6 to 7 hour walk over river bridges and into the national park at Monjo, then the steep climb to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m). Teahouse overnight in Namche.

After breakfast, walk up above Namche on an acclimatisation loop, following the rule of climb high, sleep low. Head towards 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 the first time Everest stops being a photograph and becomes a shape on the horizon.

Continue to Khumjung, a Sherpa village of stone houses and potato fields, home to the school Sir Edmund Hillary helped build in 1961, before walking back to Namche. The afternoon is free for the bakeries and gear shops. In the evening your guide takes your first pulse oximeter reading, and the advice from here on is the same: more water than feels necessary, and an early bed.

Summary: A 3 to 4 hour acclimatisation loop to the Hotel Everest View (about 3,880 m) and Khumjung, then a free afternoon. Second night in Namche (3,440 m).

After breakfast, turn off the main Everest Base Camp trail, leaving most of the traffic behind. Walk out of Namche past Kyangjuma, then climb to Mong La, a ridge close to 4,000 metres with a chorten, prayer flags and a wide view back to Ama Dablam and Thamserku.

From Mong La the trail drops steeply to Phortse Thanga, a riverside hamlet on the Dudh Koshi, then climbs again through rhododendron and birch forest. Losing height only to regain it is part of how this valley works. Check into a teahouse in Dole, a small cluster of lodges at around 4,090 metres, where by late afternoon it is just your group, the family and the stove.

Summary: A 5 to 6 hour walk off the main Everest trail via the Mong La ridge, down to Phortse Thanga and up through forest to Dole (about 4,090 m). Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, walk a deliberately short 5.6 km, as the altitude is now doing the work. The trees fall away above Dole and the trail climbs gently along the valley side through juniper scrub, past the summer grazing huts at Luza, with Cho Oyu appearing at the head of the valley for the first time.

Arrive in Machhermo at 4,470 metres, in a sheltered bowl below the ridge. In spring and autumn, a rescue post here staffed by volunteer doctors usually gives an afternoon talk on altitude sickness, and it is worth the hour. Stairs now cost more breath than they should, so an afternoon nap is part of the plan. Your guide watches your pace and oximeter reading closely from here.

Summary: Walk 5.6 km, 4 to 5 hours, along the valley past Luza to Machhermo (4,470 m), with an afternoon to rest and acclimatise. Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, climb a steep stretch of rock beside the glacial stream as the valley narrows, then level out onto the lake terraces. Pass Longponga, the small first lake, and the larger Taujung, until the third lake, Dudh Pokhari, opens up ahead, deep turquoise water with Gokyo's stone lodges along its eastern shore.

Check into your teahouse in Gokyo, at about 4,750 metres one of the highest settlements in Nepal, where most families move down the valley in winter. After lunch, take a short walk up the moraine behind the village to look down on the Ngozumpa Glacier, the largest in Nepal, buried under grey rubble. Rest this afternoon, as tomorrow starts in the dark.

Summary: Walk 6.8 km, 4 to 5 hours, past the first two lakes to Gokyo (about 4,750 m) on Dudh Pokhari, with an optional walk to the Ngozumpa Glacier. Teahouse overnight.

Wake long before sunrise for the climb up Gokyo Ri. Cross the stream at the head of the lake and follow a steep path of switchbacks by headlamp, usually two to three hours to the top. The pace is one step, one breath, set by your guide. At 5,357 metres the prayer flags on the summit snap in the wind as the sun arrives.

Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu, four of the six highest mountains on Earth, catch the light one after another, while below you the lake, the village and the Ngozumpa Glacier take on colour. It is very quiet and very cold. Walk down to Gokyo for a late breakfast, then back past the lakes to a teahouse in Machhermo, with the air thicker as you lose height.

Summary: A pre-dawn climb of Gokyo Ri (5,357 m) for sunrise over four 8,000 m peaks, breakfast in Gokyo, then down to Machhermo (4,470 m). 7 to 8 hours. Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, start the longest walking day of the trek, mostly downhill through country that now feels familiar. Retrace the trail past Luza and Dole, down through the forest to the river at Phortse Thanga, then face the one real climb of the day, back up to the Mong La ridge.

From Mong La it is an easy walk around the hillside into Namche. Somewhere on this stretch most people notice they are breathing easily again and eating more. After a week above the treeline, Namche Bazaar feels almost like a city, with a hot shower, a proper coffee and a bed at an altitude where sleep comes easily.

Summary: A long 7 to 8 hour day down the Gokyo valley via Dole and Phortse Thanga, with a final climb to Mong La, to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m). Teahouse overnight.

After breakfast, set out on the final 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 last stretch from the river up to Lukla is a short climb that surprises tired legs, a reminder that the Khumbu is never flat.

Arrive in Lukla with a quiet sense of pride. This is the evening to thank your guide and porters, the people who carried your bags and watched your breathing for nine days on the trail. Enjoy a farewell dinner together, then an early night before the morning flight.

Summary: Walk 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 often 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 carries nothing else. 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 odd feel of traffic after nine days of footpaths.

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 time rather than the trail's. Enjoy a slow breakfast and, if your schedule 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 your flight home. Back in Singapore the air-conditioning will feel colder than you remember, and the MRT will run exactly on time. 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.