Climbing Trekking Island Peak 6,189 m & Everest Base Camp, Nepal

No matter where we start the journey from, today we embark on our flights to Nepal's capital city.

We will be picked up from the airport and taken to the hotel booked for us and have a festive dinner to welcome you to this beautiful country. At the end of the trek, you can choose to spend some more days exploring this city and its unique vibe.

We'll spend one day in Kathmandu and go over all the equipment needed with each one of you, help pack it properly and buy anything that is missing or that you forgot at home. We'll also go over the last minute preparations for the trek and the climb.

We will wake up early in the morning to go to the domestic Kathmandu airport and take the flight to Lukla. It's going to be a one hour flight above the beautiful Himalayan chain, and we will land in Lukla, the starting point of our trek. After lunch, we will start our trek towards Phakding, for 2-3 hours, through animated villages and crossing bridges while experiencing the local scenery. It's a light day to start the trek.

On this day we will embark on a 6-8 hours long trek to Namche Bazaar, at 3440 m, the main trading center and hub for the Khumbu region. The city is very animated with tourists, shops, and it's the last place on our trek where you can still buy equipment needed, souvenirs or European coffee and cakes. 

As we have reached 3440 m already, we will spend a day in Namche part of our acclimatization process. We will go for a hike on a nearby hill at 3800 m, and visit the statue and museum of Tenzing in Namche Bazaar. Of course, this day can be used for shopping in case you have forgotten anything and just realized now.

This trekking day will last for about 5-6 hours, taking us up to Tengboche Monastery at 3870 m and then sleeping at 3770 m, in Debuche. Starting from Namche the first couple of hours are pretty easy, till we start the rather long climb towards the monastery. But the view up there and the visit to the monastery will compensate for the effort. After another 30 min downhill, we will reach the lodge where we'll be spending the night.

If the weather allows, the trek today will offer us spectacular views over Everest, Ama Dablam, and Lhotse. The journey is long but we gain around 700 m in altitude today. No steep climbs today, while Dingboche offers us places where we can have a very Western cappuccino and cake. It's a quite relaxing day with beautiful scenery along the journey. 

A day to reach higher and even more spectacular views. The trek to Tukla is quite smooth, giving us a chance to soak in slowly the altitude change that starts to kick in. We'll have lunch in Tukla to prepare us for the steep climb taking us to a small plateau with a lot of commemorative stones and flags in the memory of those who died on their Everest summit attempt. After that, a 30 more minute hike takes us to the final resting point for the night.

And finally, the day we've been waiting for, to reach the base of the highest point on Earth. We trek to Gorakshep, have lunch and take just a light backpack with us for the remaining few hours of the trek to Everest Base Camp, at 5364 m, and back to spend the night in Gorakshep.

We wake up really early in the morning and aim to reach the summit of Kala Patthar at 5545 m before sunrise, to have a spectacular view of the Everest peak during the beautiful rays of the morning sun. It is also an important step in our acclimatization process for the Island Peak climb. Once we descend, we will go back to Lobuche. 

From Lobuche, we will take a turn towards Chukung through the Kongma La pass at 5528 m. The route will offer us impressive views over some of the 14 peaks above 8000 m in the world, such as Chu Oyu, Lhotse, and Makalu. The day is not easy as climbing at 5500 m with a normal backpack is a bit challenging, but the views will make everything enjoyable.

The trek to Island Peak's Base Camp today is on a fairly steep trail, on the south of the Lhotse Glacier. It's not a long trek day, but it's taking us at the base of the mountain we came here to conquer.

We wake up shortly after midnight to start the summit push. It's going to be a long, hard day, but all the more beautiful when we reach the peak before noon. We'll climb through sand, grass, rocks and then snow and ice, while the hill is a pretty steep climb. We will use fixed rope in all areas needed, as well as man rope for extra safety. After the successful summit of the peak and the celebratory pictures, we go back down to the Base Camp to continue the celebration.

Today we go all the way back and down to Pangboche at 3985 m. All altitude sickness should be gone by now and the happiness of the achievements will start to kick in. 

Today we have a long way but a very enjoyable one as we're descending back to Namche and spend the evening there celebrating our success and enjoying the return to civilization. 

We're going all the way back to Lukla where we're spending the night. The last climb right before Lukla will seem an endless one, but the satisfaction of completing the trek will surpass everything.

We wake up early to catch our flight back to Kathmandu, where we have the rest of the day to visit and explore the busy and culturally shocking city. 

We'll be taking everyone back to the airport to catch the flights back home. Everyone will be happy with the experience but also somehow sad it ended.