Best of the Everest Base Camp Trek: What Is Actually Worth the Walk

The best thing on the Everest Base Camp trek is not Everest Base Camp. It is the 4:30 am climb to Kala Patthar, the green-roofed villages under Khumbila, and the hour at Tengboche when the monks start the evening puja and Ama Dablam goes pink behind the gompa. Reaching the Base camp is like crossing the finish line in a race. But it is the journey where the fun is at.

Where is the best Everest view on the trek?#

Sunrise at Kala Patthar (5,644m / 18,519 ft), a rocky outcrop on the south ridge of Pumori directly above Gorakshep (5,164 m / 16,942 ft). The contrast between the Everest view from here and rest of the trail is profoundly pronounced. Mount Everest is practically hidden from view behind the Lhotse wall throughout the trek. But when she decides to reveal herself at Kala Patthar, it is no longer just a view, it is a presence. A presence powerful enough to make you forget the pain of existence for a split second.

Gokyo Ri (5,357 m / 17,575 ft) gives you the opposite. Everest is smaller, but you are above the lakes, the whole gray length of the Ngozumpa glacier, and four eight-thousanders on one horizon. Kala Patthar is a portrait. Gokyo Ri is a landscape. Renjo La (5,360 m), the mountain pass west of Gokyo, deserves an honorary mention for aligning the Gokyo Lakes and Mount Everest on a single frame.

Checking off Everest Base Camp from the bucket list#

Everest Base Camp is a tented city of expedition teams, generators, and helicopter traffic through April and May. Outside the spring climbing season it is a painted boulder, a heap of prayer flags, and ice shifting somewhere under your boots.

A fact most first-time trekkers don’t know is that you cannot see Mount Everest from Everest Base Camp. However, a selfie at the recognizable boulder checks off one more item from your bucket list.

Three other mountains above 8000 meters and where to see them?#

Four of the world's ten highest mountains are visible from this region: Everest (8,848.86 m / 29,032 ft), Lhotse (8,516 m), Makalu (8,485 m), and Cho Oyu (8,188 m).

Lhotse, the fourth highest, is the wall that hides Everest for most of the trek. You meet it head-on from Chhukung and while the peak is eclipsed by Nuptse from Kala Patthar, you can see it well from Pumori Base Camp.

Makalu, the fifth highest, shows itself from Nangkartshang Peak above Dingboche and also from Gokyo Ri.

Cho Oyu, the sixth highest, belongs to the Gokyo valley. It closes the head of the valley above the Ngozumpa glacier, and it is the easiest of the four to photograph because nothing stands in front of it.

The only place all four line up in a single frame is at the top of Gokyo Ri.

Gokyo Lakes: Are they worth it?#

Yes, and a fair number of trekkers who have walked both valleys quietly rate Gokyo above the base camp side. The lakes themselves are a chain of six glacial pools strung along the Ngozumpa glacier between 4,700 and 5,000 m (15,400 and 16,400 ft). Frozen in winter and turquoise otherwise, they provide quite a counterpoint to the icy peaks.

But it isn’t just the lakes. The Gokyo valley is quieter and more full of wildlife. Additionally, if you are crossing the Cho La to EBC side from here, you are also saving yourself from retracing your steps and seeing a lot more of the region for a few extra days.

They are not the only water worth a detour. Chola Tsho is 1.8 km west of Thukla, about 45 minutes off the Dingboche to Lobuche trail, and is larger than the Gokyo lake everyone photographs. And almost nobody walks to it.

Which villages are worth more than a lunch stop?#

Five: Namche Bazaar, Khumjung, Khunde, Phortse, and Pangboche. Each has a specific reason to stop that is not just the view.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m / 11,290 ft) is the Sherpa capital, built into a glacial amphitheater where three valleys meet. It is the first place that feels like mountains and the last place with reliable ATMs, gear rental, and bakeries.

Khumjung (3,790 m) and Khunde (3,840 m) sit side by side under the sacred peak of Khumbila. Still rustic and quiet, they vibrate to a very different frequency from the rest of the trail. It almost feels like time is suspended there.

Phortse (3,840 m) is said to have produced more Everest summiteers per head than any village on earth, and hosts the Khumbu Climbing Center. Pangboche (4,020 m) is the highest year-round Sherpa village on the route, and its gompa, founded around 1667, is the oldest in the Khumbu.

Is Tengboche Monastery overrated? What other monasteries are worth the walk?#

Tengboche monastery is overrated in the same way that the Beatles are overrated. With a ridge top location with an expansive view and the beautiful Ama Dablam right behind, it is a classic. Time it so that you are in there for the evening puja just before sunset, and you have got yourself the Revolver equivalent. Make the trip when the Mani Rimdu festival is going on, and you got yourself the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Three others earn the stop. Pangboche gompa, from around 1667, is the region's oldest. Deboche nunnery, twenty minutes downhill through birch and rhododendron forest, was founded in 1925 and is still active. Thame monastery, west of Namche on the old salt route to Tibet, sits in the village where Tenzing Norgay grew up.

What wildlife will you actually see on the trek?#

Himalayan tahr, musk deer, pikas, and a good deal of birdlife. Tahrs on the cliffs above Namche and Phortse; Danphe, the iridescent Himalayan monal above Namche; the elusive Musk deer around Tengboche and Phortse; and the blood pheasant around Deboche.

April and May are the best birding months, when the altitudinal migrants have moved up and are breeding. For large wildlife, the winter months are the best. Find the tradeoffs of each month in HoneyGuide’s seasonal breakdown of the EBC trek.

Ama Dablam and other memorable mountains#

Ama Dablam (6,812 m / 22,349 ft) is the mountain most people actually remember, and it is not an eight-thousander. It walks with you from Namche to Thukla and pops up again in its Matterhorn form from Kala Patthar. The way it changes shape every day while still managing to look iconic from all of them is simply uncontested.

Pumori (7,161 m) is the other one worth knowing by name. Kala Patthar is a rib on its south ridge, so you spend the coldest morning of your trek climbing Pumori's lower slopes to photograph Everest, then turn around and find Pumori filling the sky behind you.

What do trekkers remember a year later?#

The people, almost always. Ask someone six months out what they remember and you will usually hear a story about the people they met on the trail. Sure as more trekkers go to the Everest Region, deep serendipitous encounters are being replaced by transactional ones.

But in little enclaves close to the yellow brick road, are opportunities to truly connect with the people who have sculpted these valleys with their endurance and compassion. If you spend an evening at a Sherpa home learning to roll potato dumplings, go up the slopes of Khumbila to hang prayer flags, or simply sit quietly during the morning puja at a monastery, you will touch a fabric that truly makes it worth it.

Everest is the reason you book. The Khumbu is what you bring home.

Sources#

• Survey of Everest's height, joint Nepal-China announcement, December 2020 — the 8,848.86 m figure and how it was agreed.
• Ramsar Sites Information Service: Gokyo and associated lakes — designation date, area, and the ecological case for the lake system.
• Sagarmatha National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Centre — park boundaries, 1979 inscription, and species ranges.