Everest Sherpa Country Walk-in Trek

Upon arrival in Kathmandu, you will be met by a JOURNEYS staff member at the airport and transferred to your Western-style hotel. Your guides will be available for advice on everything from how to bargain to choosing restaurants to learning a little bit of the Nepali language. You will have some time to just relax, or to nibble at the feast of new experiences in this exotic city. Brief orientation.

Meals: Dinner

Your second day in Kathmandu includes guided visits to famous temples of Swayambhunath, Pasupatinath or Boddhanath. You will see life going on as it has for hundreds of years against a background of sacred peaks, terraced hillsides and an exotic culture. In Kathmandu, and throughout your trip, we encourage you to interact with local people either through your guide as interpreter, or through participation in the activities that are all around you. While you explore, your staff gets all your food supplies and logistical requirements in order for your trek.   

Meals: Breakfast

Depart for your trailhead by van or jeep at Jiri, dodging cattle and water buffalo as you wind your way north out of the Kathmandu Valley and along the Sun Kosi River. You leave the pavement for a more primitive road and travel as far as it is possible to drive. Your full day by vehicle eliminates 10 days of hiking from Kathmandu. Your staff makes camp and prepares substantial, multi-course meal with a choice of hot beverages. Get accustomed to eating well and to a pleasant routine of adventure, discovery, learning and exercise punctuated by the hospitality of the Nepalese staff and their friends who live along the way. Your route passes through many lowland villages, over high passes and beside beautiful mountain rivers. Camp in Jiri at 6250'.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You begin trekking east over the foothill ridges. Your path leads you through beautiful fir, rhododendron and hemlock forests, and the dramatic effects of altitude on flora, fauna and human beings is evident. Areas near your campsite at Khasrobas offer a spectacular view of the Himalayas--Gauri Shankar (23,459'), once thought to be the world's highest peak, is the most prominent.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today you pass by Thodung Monastery, where from here you can see Lamjura Pass, which you will cross tomorrow. Descend into Bhandar for lunch, where Sherpas live peaceably with Chetris and Tamangs. In the village there is an interesting collection of stupas and the domed Buddhist temples grow more and more common as you move further into Sherpa country. The community and surrounding terrain comprise one of the most aesthetically appealing locations in all Nepal. You continue down steeply into the gorge of the Likhu River, arriving at Kinja for your camp. This is one of the last areas where you will encounter lowland Hindu cultures.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

After breakfast begin the long climb from Kinja (5,300') to Sete, a small Sherpa community perched on a steep slope at 8,400'. You may visit the local temple and should keep alert for the wildlife. It is a demanding but exciting climb through the forest to Lamjura Pass (11,500'), marked by many prayer flags and a large collection of "Mani Stones". Symbolically, this is a gate to the real Sherpa country to the north. The stones have been carried up to the pass by devout Sherpa Buddhists as a way of acquiring religious merit. Descending down to Thaktor through a dense rhododendron-oak forest, you arrive at an area of attractive high meadows where you will camp for the night.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Continue to Junbesi for an early lunch then proceed through beautiful farm and forest land. Passing through Ringmo and over the Taksindo La (10,000'), you reach Taksindo Monastery. This is one of the most peaceful campsites in the Solu.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

From Taksindo, you descend through pine and oak forests to Jubing, a Rai community. After crossing the Khari Khola River you climb to Kharte, a Sherpa settlement and continue to your camp at Bupsa.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

There are opportunities for bird watching and photography all day long. Enjoy a spectacular view of the route you have walked and the high country that lies ahead. By now, you will have grown to appreciate the pleasures of trekking: a comfortable pace, good food, and complete confidence in the ability of your staff to handle the details of Himalayan travel. Camp at Surkye.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Continue the trek from Surkye proceeding up the deep valley of the Dudh Khosi. You can pause frequently to admire the mani walls and long rows of stones with "Om Mani Padme Om' meticulously carved in Tibetan script. Prayer flags fly above every house and large wooden or metal prayer wheels sanctify the trail. You cross and re-cross the rushing glacial waters of the Dudh Khosi (literally translated as "milky river"). Camp by the river just outside the Sagarmatha National park boundary.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today you enter Sagarmatha National Park at Jorsale. Climb out of the pleasant pine forest and through a series of switch backs. If the sky is clear, you will catch you first glimpse of Everest about halfway up the slope. At last you’ll arrive in Namche Bazaar. This is the most important cultural and economic center in the area. It lies in a natural amphitheater protected from the weather and is blessed with a major natural spring. Several of your staff are from this area and you will be welcomed in the large home of the Sherpa family of your guide.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This is a convenient place to rest for a day to acclimatize and to explore the town. Take a full day for exploration and acclimatization. We highly recommend you to take a day hike to the very famous Japanese “Everest View Hotel”.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Tengboche Monastery has been reconstructed after the ruinous fire of January 1989. You will want to keep alert for the beautiful Danfay or Impeyan Pheasant, the national bird of Nepal. You may also see eagles and other soaring raptors, as well as musk deer and the Himalayan Tahr, a species of goat/antelope. In April and May rhododendrons bloom in profusion. At last, as your final climb takes you through the greeting arch of the Tengboche Monastery (12,687'), a spectacular panorama unfolds. You’ll camp near the monastery at a site offering the first full view of the high peaks and valleys.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The trail follows the river, climbing gradually as you head directly for Everest. You pass through Deboche, a community of nuns, then cross the Dudh Khosi again and climb to Pangboche for lunch. After lunch, you continue on to Dingboche at 14,250'. It can snow here any month of the year, but you are so far back in the mountains, precipitation is usually light. Snowy peaks, however, are all around you, with the majestic Ama Dablam the most impressive. If the weather is clear, you can see Everest for most of the day, but the closer you get to camp, the less the summit projects above Lhotse.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Make an optional full day trip up the Chukhung Valley to the "feet" of the Lhotse glaciers. The scenery is spectacular and there are many possibilities for side excursions. You can work your way up Chukhung Glacier toward Island Peak, climb the slope above Chukhung for a view of Makalu or just relax in this usually deserted high valley. (15,535'). Return to camp at Dingboche.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Crossing above Periche on a high "shoulder", you enter the upper Khumbu Valley. After stopping for lunch at Duglha, ascend the toe of the Khumbu glacier and then follow a path above the buried surface of the ice, reaching Lobuche (16,175') after a long, hard day's walk.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Rise before dawn to begin the walk to Kalapathar (18,300'). Following the buried Khumbu glacier for a ways, you then cross a patch of jumbled scree and descend into a sandy hollow that shelters Gorak Shep (17,000'). From here, you face the ascent to Kalapathar - quite steep and very tiring due to the altitude. Everest Base Camp can be reached by continuing along the Khumbu glacier, although Everest itself is not visible from Base Camp and most of our participants opt to climb Kalapathar instead. In either case, we suggest participants not make a singular goal of reaching these destinations. Your guide will be alert to your acclimatization and may suggest you not try to climb Kalapathar. There are interesting sights and activities around the entire trekking route, and in fact, are more numerous at lower elevations. Fantastic mountain views are available at all points above Namche. These are times for reflection, relaxation and fantasy in most exhilarating surroundings. Return to camp at Lobuche.

We are always prepared to accommodate individuals at lower elevations if they do not feel, for any reason, capable of ascending to the highest planned point on the itinerary.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Begin retracing your route, returning somewhat more quickly than you ascended, and camp for the night at Pangboche (12,800'). The monastery here is the oldest in the Khumbu, and you are free to visit and hike around this appealing town.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

At Pangboche you take a different route for your return. The trail is steep but rewarding as you climb high above a gorge along narrow yak trails to Phortse (12,000'). This route is one of the best in the area for seeing musk deer, the Himalayan Tahr, and other wildlife, including the Himalayan Blood Pheasant and Danfay. The path is quite safe, but dramatically scenic and suggestive of precipitous terrain. Stop near Phortse for lunch, then continue on down through the forest to the stream for your campsite. Across the stream is the dense sacred forest of Tengboche.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Your path takes you through Tolkienesque terrain. You climb a stone stairway and then descend through a cavernous chimney reaching the twin Sherpa communities of Khunde and Khumjung. You may be able to visit the school and hospital here. Finally, descend to Namche Bazaar and again spend the night with your Sherpa host's family, recounting your experiences of the past week and perhaps logging a few more.   

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

If you find the prospect of an extra day in Namche exciting, spend the day in personal exploration. Those with energy for more trekking may like to make the day trip to Thame. Many famous Sherpa climbers have come from this small town. A monastery built into the rock high above the town holds a spectacular festival each May. From vantage points near the monastery it is possible to see into Tibet. On some trips this may also be market day in Namche and you will encounter many Sherpas in their finest traditional clothes coming and going on the trail.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Hike back from Namche to Phakding. This can be an easy day, a contingency day or a day for exploration of some of the steep trails along surrounding hillsides below Namche. Look for large beehives on overhanging cliff faces and keep your eyes open for the rare honeyguide birds which raid them.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

There is no rush to reach Lukla. Upon arrival, transfer to a hotel near the airstrip. The airstrip itself is an interesting place. Without actually seeing it happen, you might not believe a nineteen-passenger plane could fly in and out of here.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

If all goes well, you are back in Kathmandu by late morning. The flight takes 35 minutes, soaring over the ridges of the Solu. Your afternoon is open in Kathmandu. (This is a contingency day if you are delayed in Khumbu.)      

Meals: Breakfast

If you are delayed in Khumbu by flight cancelled, this is your contingency day, otherwise it's an open day for shopping and seeing the things that just didn't fit in your schedule on arrival in Nepal.

Meals: Breakfast

Transfer to the airport for your onward flight, or continue your journey in Nepal with one of our unique extensions.

Meals: Breakfast