Honest, detailed guides to trekking Everest Base Camp — written by Andrew and Elaine as they prepare for the EBC trek via Gokyo route with Evertrek in October 2026. Real costs, real training, no guesswork.
This article contains affiliate links. If you book or purchase through these links I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and companies I genuinely use or have researched thoroughly. Teahouses are the reason EBC is accessible to regular hikers rather than just expedition mountaineers. No tents,…
Most people who trek to Everest Base Camp go via the classic route — up the Khumbu Valley, through Namche Bazaar, Tengboche, Dingboche, and on to Lobuche and Gorak Shep. It’s spectacular, well-trodden, and for good reason one of the most celebrated treks in the world.
Most days on the Gokyo EBC route are hard in a cumulative, grinding way — long hours, high altitude, heavy legs by mid-afternoon. The Cho La Pass is different. It’s hard in a single, concentrated day that requires technical awareness, an early start, and genuine respect for the mountain conditions you’ll encounter.
Most EBC packing guides focus on clothing and footwear. Tech tends to get a paragraph at the end — “bring a head torch and a power bank” — and that’s it.
Given we’re spending 18 days at altitude in some of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet, and given that I’ve thought carefully about every piece of technology we’re taking, it deserves more than a paragraph.
The sleeping bag for the EBC trek decision was one I sat on longer than almost anything else in our preparation. It sounds straightforward — pick a bag, pack it, go. But once you start pulling on the threads, it gets complicated fast.
Here’s the statistic that stops most people mid-scroll when they first research EBC: around 75% of trekkers experience some form of altitude sickness on the way to Everest Base Camp.
Three in four. That’s not a fringe risk. That’s something to plan for seriously.
This article contains affiliate links. If you book or purchase through these links I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and companies I genuinely use or have researched thoroughly. Of all the planning involved in an EBC trek, the Nepal visa is one of the least…
The guided vs independent EBC trek question is one of the first things people ask when planning EBC. And for years the answer was straightforward — it’s your choice, here are the trade-offs.
When I started researching Nepal trekking permits for our Evertrek EBC trip in October 2026, I found the same list repeated across dozens of websites: TIMS card, Sagarmatha National Park permit, sometimes a handful of others depending on the route.
The problem is that at least one of those is wrong — or rather, outdated. And when you’re planning a trip of this complexity, outdated information costs you time, money, or both.
Here’s something most EBC planning guides don’t tell you clearly enough: if you’re trekking to Everest Base Camp in October or November 2026, you almost certainly will not be flying to Lukla from Kathmandu.
