A yak carries supplies to Everest Base Camp

A trek up to Everest Base Camp is not for the faint hearted. It’s a tough and demanding walk up to the base of the world’s highest mountain.

The two-week trek begins and ends at Lukla – a small town with the world’s scariest airport. The runway slopes down hill and then drops off a sheer cliff! 

The trek climbs 2600 metres straight up from Lukla through remote villages, forests and past the magnificent Thyangboche monastery into the arid heart of the mountains. Famous peaks Ama Dablam (6856 mts) and Lhotse (8414 mts) decorate the skyline, but nothing compares to the gargantuan ramparts of Everest (Sagamartha - the Mother Goddess of the World) which thrusts almost nine kilometres up into the earth’s atmosphere. 

At 8850 metres, it is the master of all mountains and to be messed with at your own peril. A monument to fallen climbers at base camp is a timely reminder of Everest’s unstable moods and appetite for swallowing lives whole.