Everest Base Camp Trek with Helicopter Return – 11 Days

Once you’ve cleared the airport, our team drives you to your hotel and the day is yours. Kathmandu is only about 1,400 m, so you won’t feel the height yet. Rest while you can.

Your guide visits later to go over the plan, with extra time on Day 10: how the helicopter flight works, how much you can take and what happens if it can’t fly. They’ll also check your boots, warm layers and gloves, and take copies of your passport and insurance policy.

Anything you still need can be rented or bought in Thamel this evening, for less than you’d pay on the trail.

You’re up early. For much of spring and autumn the plane goes from Manthali in Ramechhap, a long drive in the dark from Kathmandu, and at quieter times straight from the capital. It lands on a strip of tarmac only 527 m long, tilted uphill at 11.7%, so it slows down fast.

You meet your porters, and the walk starts downhill. There’s no rush today, and the trail is wide: Chheplung, then Ghat, past carved mani stones and prayer wheels, with the river getting louder as you drop. Dudh Koshi means “milk river”, which makes sense when you see its pale, cloudy water.

You sleep at Phakding, lower than Lukla, which gives your body an easy first night in the mountains.

The morning is a steady walk north beside the Dudh Koshi, through pine forest and small villages such as Benkar, with the snow of Thamserku showing above the trees on a clear day.

Everyone stops at the checkpoint by Monjo, the way into Sagarmatha National Park, which has protected this area since 1976 and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979. After Jorsale the valley closes in. You cross on the Hillary Suspension Bridge, high above the water, and then the path zigzags uphill through pines with few flat spots.

Your heart will beat faster than the pace seems to deserve. That’s the height, not your fitness, so slow down, drink water and let faster groups go past. Namche Bazaar is your home for two nights. Order something hot and get to bed early.

Today isn’t a day off. Walking higher and then sleeping back at the same height helps your body adjust, and you’ll need that, because your next nights are much higher.

You climb out of town past the Syangboche airstrip, then follow the path up to Hotel Everest View, where Everest shows above the Nuptse ridge on a clear morning. From here it looks small and a long way off, and it is: you’ll be walking towards it for five more days.

Back in Namche by lunch, you’ve got the afternoon to rest. Buy any last snacks or batteries, because this is the last big shopping stop on the trail, and on Saturdays a market fills the town centre. Try to get a good night’s sleep.

From Namche the trail curves round the hillside, nearly level, high above the river. Lhotse and Everest fill the head of the valley, while Thamserku (6,623 m) and Kangtega (6,782 m), whose name means “the snow saddle”, stand across the gorge.

Beyond Kyangjuma the path drops sharply to Phunki Tenga at the river. You’ll feel the climb afterwards, about two hours through fir and rhododendron, in your legs and your lungs. There’s no prize for arriving first.

Tengboche is the largest monastery in the Khumbu and sees about 15,000 visitors a year, yet the ridge can feel quiet in the late afternoon once the day’s walkers have moved on. If the lodges are full, you sleep a little further along at Deboche, which has a small nunnery. Wear your warm layers for the evening, because the temperature falls quickly when the sun goes.

You start downhill through mossy forest, then cross the Imja Khola on a narrow bridge and climb steadily to Pangboche (3,985 m). Its school was built by Hillary’s Himalayan Trust in 1963, and Ama Dablam’s climbers use the village as a base. The mountain now stands right above you.

Above Pangboche the trees stop. You’re walking through juniper scrub and open pasture, past stone yak huts, and the wind usually picks up by midday. Walking feels different at this height: a short slope can leave you breathing hard.

Dingboche sits on a wide flat beside the Imja Khola. Eat well even if you’re not hungry, keep drinking, and tell your guide if you have a headache.

A second rest day, and again you walk up before you sleep. The path up the ridge behind Dingboche is steep and rocky but not technical, and you can stop whenever you like. Even a few hundred metres does your body good.

Go all the way to Nangkartshang at 5,083 m and you can see Makalu (8,485 m) far to the east, with Lhotse’s huge wall nearby and the Imja valley running off towards Island Peak. If you’d like something gentler, walk up the valley towards Chhukung instead.

Afternoons are for resting. Many people sleep badly at this height, waking often through the night. That’s normal, but a bad headache, vomiting or trouble walking straight is not, so tell your guide straight away.

The trail climbs onto a ridge above Dingboche and crosses open pasture high over the Pheriche valley, with Tawache and Cholatse on your left. At Thukla you stop for lunch before the hardest part of the day: straight up the end of the Khumbu Glacier’s moraine, slowly, with plenty of pauses.

The top of the Thukla Pass is covered in stone memorials and prayer flags for people who died on Everest, climbers and Sherpas alike. Take a few minutes here before walking on.

Lobuche’s lodges were long known for simple stone huts and shared bunks, though newer ones have twin rooms, and some offer internet and oxygen. The cold at night is serious, so keep your water bottle and camera batteries inside your sleeping bag.

This is the day you came for, and it’s a long one, so start early. The path follows the side of the Khumbu Glacier over rock and rubble, with short, breathless climbs, until you drop to the sandy flat of Gorak Shep, the last settlement on the trail. Leave your main bag at the lodge and have lunch.

Base camp is a hard walk further on, over boulders and ice with no easy rhythm. The camp sits on the glacier itself. In April and May it’s a town of expedition tents, and at other times you may find little more than rock, ice and a marker stone hung with prayer flags.

Everest’s summit is hidden from this spot, but the Khumbu Icefall hangs right above you. The ice under your feet is melting and thinning, and a government plan of December 2025 calls for a study on moving the camp.

Back at Gorak Shep you’ll be tired and very high. Your porters walk back down from here, so give them their tips tonight.

Have your bag packed before breakfast. Morning is usually the clearest time for flying, and your guide stays in touch with the helicopter company while watching the sky. The helipad is close to the lodges.

The air is so thin here that a helicopter can lift only a few people at a time, often two or three, so a group may have to fly in turns. It may also stop on the way, usually at Lukla, to refuel.

From the air, the trail you took eight days to walk slides past in minutes: the glacier, the wide valley at Pheriche, the ridge at Tengboche and the rows of lodges at Namche. Then the high country falls away and the hills turn green as you near Kathmandu. Your ears will pop, and the warm air will feel strange.

If cloud or wind keeps the helicopter on the ground, you wait for the next clear spell, at Gorak Shep or lower down the valley if your guide thinks that’s better. All being well, you’re at your hotel by early afternoon, with time for a long shower before our farewell dinner.

We bring you to Tribhuvan International Airport in time for check-in, usually three hours ahead of an international flight.

If you left spare days in your plans and the helicopter ran on time, you could use them to see Pokhara or go on safari in Chitwan.