Yak poo, dangerous flights, and teahouses: 10 truths about hiking Everest Base Camp
But what most people don't talk about is the odd, uncomfortable, and unexpectedly wonderful things that happen along the way. From yak poo fires to flights into the world's most dangerous airport, here's 10 truths about hiking to Everest Base Camp.
Before your trek to Everest Base Camp can begin, you have to fly into Lukla Airport, one of the most dangerous airports in the world. Lukla Airport is considered 'dangerous' for a lot of reasons: short runways, high altitude, poor visibility, and wind.
The runway itself is perched right on the side of the mountain and is only 1,729 feet long (for context, runways at most large international airports are roughly 10,000 feet long). Flights there are so frequently cancelled that you have to build buffer days into your base camp trek schedule in case of cancellation. If you do manage to get a flight, expect a tiny plane and turbulence.
If we had one word of advice for packing for Everest Base Camp it would be layers. Maybe unsurprisingly, weather in the world's tallest mountains is super unpredictable and the sun is strong. Overnight and in the mornings it's freezing (you'll probably get snow), but once the sun rises it's super hot. You'll start hiking at 5am bundled in beanies and coats, but by 8am, you'll be peeling off layers.
Wondering how to charge your phone in the Himalayas? It's a lot easier than you think, but you'll have to pay. Most tea houses along the route provide charging, but you have to pay for it either by the time or percentage of battery. Expect to pay between $1-5 per hour of charging, depending on how high up you are in the mountains. Personally, we brought a solar-powered battery pack to charge our phones and save time fighting other trekkers for plugs at the teahouses.
As for the internet, you can buy WiFi cards at teahouses, with 100mb usually costing $3-5.
Around day 6 of your trek, you'll break the tree line. From this point on, wood becomes a precious commodity that most villages do not have. Instead, the locals use dried yak poo to fuel their fires during the frigid nights. After a long day of trekking, we loved going to a bakery or teahouse, ordering pastries or tea, and chatting around the fire with lots of other trekkers. It's moments like these that make the journey all worth it.
You probably shouldn't expect Michelin-star cuisine this high up in the Himalayas, but if you do, sorry to burst your bubble. The logistics of getting food up to these villages is difficult, so restaurants serve a few dishes that give you the energy needed to keep trekking.
Vegetarians rejoice, because you'll find little to no meat on the trek. Expect to eat lots of oatmeal, noodles, and rice served alongside local dishes like momos (dumplings) and dal bhat (lentil soup). If you're lucky, you might find a teahouse serving pizza or mac n cheese. And after a long day of hiking, it'll be the best pizza of your life.
The best way to hydrate and embrace local customs during the trek is by drinking lots of tea. Try Tibetan tea, made with salt, tea, butter, flour, and milk. Seriously, it tastes like cookies in liquid form. We also fell in love with the tart sea buckthorn juice, made from a superfood berry that has more vitamins than oranges or carrots.
I think it's an important shoutout to let you know that you often can't see Mount Everest from Everest Base Camp. Mount Everest is huge, but its summit often plays hide-and-seek behind mountains, clouds, and glaciers. The best views of this famous mountain come a little earlier in the trek. Usually, it's between Namche Bazaar and Dingboche that you will be able to see Everest the best.
Spending the night at Everest Base Camp is usually reserved for the brave souls attempting to summit the mountain. If you're just hiking to base camp, you'll stay further downhill in the village of Gorakshep.
After dropping your bags off at the tea house, it's about a two-hour hike to base camp. You'll stop there for a bit to take pictures, eat a snack, and marvel at your accomplishments before heading back to Gorakshep for the night. But honestly, just being at Everest Base Camp for a little bit is surreal.
We saw between 3-10 rescue helicopters every single day of our trek! It's a 50/50 split between hikers getting airlifted off our trek and climbers getting airlifted off Mount Everest. Every time one flew by, we felt so grateful that our bodies were healthy enough to survive this insane hike, even after gaining thousands of meters of elevation a day!
Our favorite part of the Everest Base Camp trek (besides the incredible mountain views) was getting to meet so many new friends. From learning about local culture with our sherpa guides to laughing as our new Aussie friends jumped into one of the freezing cold lakes, we really fell in love with the people on the trek.
We vlogged every single day of our Everest Base Camp journey when we did the trek many years ago. To go back and see day 1, check out the video below!
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