Trek to the Everst Base Camp (P1)

03 Aug 2025

A toxic trait of mine is that I usually don’t think so much about the difficulty of doing something before I actually do it. This applies to many things from hiking to my first ski trip. This particular trip was also like that. A friend of mine and I thought about going to the Everest Base Camp about a year before. At that time I thought it was just the Base Camp right, which is not super high in altitude, I had already done many hikes in the Alps, and we would just be mostly walking, how hard could it be. About six months before that we made plans (though to be fair my friend was responsible for 90% of the plan). Finally at the end of November 2024, we embarked on the trip to the Himalayas.

November appears to be a good month to visit the Base Camp, as we would dodge the big waves of hikers, climbers and tourists who flood to the region during the peak season, at the same time the weather is still bearable, more or less. Before the trip we decided not to go for an organised tour, but a private local guide (Sherpa) instead, for cheaper cost and flexibility. And the Sherpa himself hired a porter to help carry our bags during the trip, we would find this extremely helpful later on as our bags weighed ~20kg/person. With that we formed a little group of four for the 10-day trip ahead.

But first let’s talk about what I carried and prepared before the trip, as it might be useful for those who want to go on similar trips. There were non-direct flights between Munich-Kathmandu, but I also wanted to quickly visit India after the Base Camp trip, so decided to fly to Kolkata, India first to meet my friend, then have return flights to and from Kathmandu from there. I booked around four months in advance and it costed around 1000€ in total. In order to get to the Base Camp, you don’t have to obtain any permit in advance, but it’s highly recommended to buy travel insurance, the type that covers helicopter transport and medical treatment related to mountaineering. There are several providers for this, and price varies depending on the coverage. Make sure to check and buy in advance.

I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in packing, and I don’t love that part of traveling. But for this particular trip, I think I did a good job balancing between bringing enough essentials and not exceeding the luggage allowance. Before going on the trekking trip, we would have to board a short flight from Ramechhap to Lukla, which was rated as the most dangerous airport in the world due to its location and the technical difficulty to take off and land. For this flight, we were only allowed 15kg of checked bag. Therefore, for the entire trip ahead, I had to plan what I should squeeze in the 15kg bag. You can see in the picture below everything in my bag, the essentials were big waterproof duffel bag, good trekking shoes, water bottes, warm and breathable clothing (the three layers), common medicines, hiking poles, wet wipes, tiger balm, disinfectants, high energy snacks, electrolites tablets and cash. Besides, we also needed a good sleeping bag to survive the Himalyan winter, which we rented right after arriving at Lukla. I don’t remenber the fee exactly, but it was acceptable after some negotiation.

Somehow flights to and from Kolkata only arrived and departed at odd time. I arrived in Kolkata airport at around 2AM, and the next flight to Kathmandu was at 7, so I barely slept. But I didn’t have a lot of time to kill as the Indian customs and security were not the most efficient. The airport was not very big and there was not a lot of things to do at 4AM so I just sat on an empty bench and thought how amazing it was to finally set foot on this part of the world, and was excited for the journey ahead. I finally met my friend and we boarded the 9h flights to Kathmandu, including 6h layover in Delhi. There I had a chance to briefly witness the air polution in this city which I at first mistakened for dense fog. But I would definitely go back to explore this city in depth.

The flight from Delhi to Kathmandu was normal, except for the stunning view of the Himalayas down below. As I got a window seat, couldn’t get my eyes off the view outside the window, and took tons of pictures and videos. We arrived in Kathmandu at around 7PM, three hours late thanks to the amazing job of Air India. After customs check - which was very long given the small airport and large number of tourists, bag retrieval, buying SIM cards and exchanging currency, we finally got out of the airport around 8 or 9PM. There a driver already waited to take us to Ramechhap, where we will fly to Lukla in the next morning. We arranged this pickup in advance with the hostel in Ramechhap so we didn’t have to waste any time in Kathmandu. And that was the beginning of the longest 6h drive of my life.

It started off normally as we drove through and out of the city. Just by a brief look at that time, but I could tell Kathmandu was not really well maintained. The whole city looked like it was just gone through another nasty earthquake. Then the driver decided that instead of going on the main road which would take a bit longer, we went for the lesser known shortcut that was supposed to save us lots of time. After a few kms into that, we realized that the road was blocked by the government for some reason, and there were several security check points along the road. The driver was quite confident he could negotiate with the security guys, so were we, so we went ahead anyway. However, after 45 minutes of negotiation, we had to turn around. But our driver was a determined guy who never gave up, he had this brilliant idea of diverting to a completely different route unknown to Google Maps. Of course, we ended up getting lost in the woods in the middle of nowhere at 11PM. The road was dark and super bumpy I couldn’t sit still on the seat though we didn’t drive very fast. We finally arrived at Ramechhap at around 2AM, quickly went to bed thinking that we had an early flight tomorrow.

The morning after I felt like sh*t due to sleep deprivation. We got up around 5AM, had a quick breakfast and tea prepared by the friendly guys at the hostel, bought some more water, rearranged our bags and headed to the airport, which was literally 20m from us. The Ramechhap airport was quite small, consisting of a small building for ticketing, security scan and waiting, and a relatively short runway for the planes. This airport operates a few daily flights between Ramechhap and Lukla, though the flights are frequently delayed and canceled due to bad weather. So even though we got tickets, it was not guaranteed we could fly out that day. That being said, we bought the tickets through our Sherpa, who had local connections to make sure we could adapt quickly to the changing situation. Luckily, our scheduled flight did happen that day, though a few hours late due to the ambiguous weather forecast in the morning. Another thing that I was glad of was that my bag went through the weight check, though it was ~17kg. I guess they were not super strict about that. At the waiting room, we we heard from another group that some people from their group who went on the same route as ours last night and hadn’t arrived yet. I was glad we made it there but if I ever do this again, I would either fly directly from Kathmandu, or take my time and go with a more professional travel bus. Anyway, after waiting for some time and falling half asleep on the bench, the plane finally came and we could board it. To be honest, I didn’t feel like sitting in an airplane at all, as it was just a bit bigger than a helicopter, with less than 20 people on board, including three crew members. I sat in the front row, so could even watch the captain and his assistant in action, which was very cool. They looked like they knew what they were doing, well I hoped so, it was among the most dangerous flights in the world. By the way, I forgot to tell you that though this flight only lasted 20 minutes, it costed ~200€. Yep, the most expensive flight I had ever done. I guess the view of the gorgeous Himalayas outside the window also added up to the cost. Looking outside, I wondered which one was the Everest.

We landed in Lukla around noon. Our Sherpa Mindu and the porter (I sadly forgot his name) were already there waiting for us. We quickly got acquainted. He explained to us the route ahead, all the fees, what to pay attention to during the trip. We were sitting in a big restaurant just outside the airport. He then handed us a menu to order breakfast (or lunch), he got our orders and went away to arrange with the restaurant. After the breakfast, we paid at counter. That was the routine we would stick to in the entire trip.

Lukla is one of the major towns in the EBC trek, the start of the journey. People usually stop here to buy essentials and exchange money. First thing we did here was to rent good sleeping bags, ones that keep us warm up till -20C. Mindu took us to a big store in town.

(to be completed…)