For the final post in my series on the incredible Everest Base Camp trek, I’m sharing a complete Everest Base Camp packing list! I mean, I’ve packed for a lot of trips, but nothing prepared me for the intensity of packing for Everest Base Camp. If you’re sitting there glassy eyed, overwhelmed, and screaming inside about packing for EBC… I’ve been there!
If you want to have an enjoyable Everest Base Camp experience, then training is essential! Few people can rock up in the Himalayas and trek Everest Base Camp without difficulty. But coming up with a training plan for this unique experience can be overwhelming: How long should you train for? What exercises should you include? At what frequency? Trust me, I’ve been there!
Interested in trekking Everest Base Camp in Nepal, but wondering what you’ll actually be doing day to day? I’ve got you covered with this 11 day Everest Base Camp trek itinerary. And if you want to see what it was like, scroll to the bottom for my three minute video covering our entire trek.
Lots of people dream of trekking in Nepal. But with the recent news of Everest’s deadly season, and the internet circulating photos of long queues of neon-jacketed climbers pushing for their chance at the summit, it begs the question: Should we really be encouraging travelers to go trekking in Nepal?
If you’re dreaming of the trek to Everest Base Camp but it’s just that… a dream… I understand. To trek Everest Base Camp requires a huge commitment. It’s a financial investment, is physically demanding, carries health risks, and will take you at least two weeks. This is not a vacation that you will return to work rested and rejuvenated from! For instance, I trained daily and had to quit one of my jobs prior to the trek in order to get the time to do it.
While I have so much still to say about the Himalayas and the trek to Everest Base Camp, I also want to give a nod to Kathmandu, Nepal. The brown city I flew into, the plane circling above Kathmandu’s thick layer of smog for an extra hour, idling until we could land. My first Asian city. And what a contrast it presents when you compare Kathmandu’s hectic streets to the rocky paths of the mountains. I only spent a couple days in Kathmandu, and as I was part of a tour group, we got shuttled around to the important sights. It’s maybe the first city I’ve visited where I’m glad I had this more canned experience. I’m not sure how I would have navigated its streets otherwise.
Completing the Everest Base Camp trek was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had. I posted daily updates about the trek to Instagram, but I also kept a pen-and-paper journal during the trek. I wanted to remember the Everest Base Camp trek in the most authentic way – and for me that’s through writing. So I brought along a notebook and every evening I spent a few minutes recording my thoughts on the day.
