To Everest Base Camp and Back: 12 Days at Altitude

I Wasn't Trying to Climb Everest. I Just Wanted to Touch the Base.

Let's get this straight: I have no interest in summiting Everest. I like my fingers and toes where they are. But Base Camp — the famous 5,364-metre staging post where the real climbers acclimatise — that felt achievable. A long walk at altitude. How hard could it be?

Quite hard, as it turned out.

The Flight That Almost Didn't Happen

The trek starts with a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, which lands on a short runway tilted uphill into the side of a mountain. It's routinely called the most dangerous airport in the world. My flight was cancelled twice for weather. On the third morning, the clouds parted, the little plane bumped onto the strip, everyone clapped, and I stepped out into the thin air of the Khumbu already slightly out of breath.

The Rule I Broke on Day Three

Everyone tells you: climb high, sleep low, and never, ever gain more than 300–500 metres of sleeping altitude in a day. On day three, feeling strong, I pushed on to Namche Bazaar and then further. I woke up at 3am with a headache that felt like my skull was being squeezed in a vice.

Altitude is humbling. It does not care how fit you are. I spent a full rest day in Namche drinking ginger tea and staring at the ceiling of my teahouse room, cursing my own impatience. Lesson learned. After that, I respected the altitude and the rest of the trek went smoothly.

The Teahouses

You sleep in teahouses — simple family-run lodges with a communal dining room heated by a yak-dung stove. This is where the trek's real character lives. You sit around the stove with a dozen strangers from a dozen countries, all of you in socks because boots aren't allowed inside, trading Snickers bars and stories. The food is surprisingly good — dal bhat, the endless rice and lentil meal that Nepali porters eat twice a day, every day, and somehow still carry your bags up a mountain afterwards.

The porters are the real story. I watched men carry loads that weighed more than me, wearing flip-flops, at 4,000 metres, and overtake me on the trail with a smile and a "namaste." I will never complain about a heavy backpack again.

The Morning It All Made Sense

Base Camp itself is, honestly, a bit underwhelming in the flesh — a pile of prayer flags and some stones on a glacier. The real moment comes the morning before, from Kala Patthar, the viewpoint above it.

I climbed Kala Patthar at dawn. Every step at 5,500 metres is a negotiation with your own lungs. But at the top, the sun came up over the shoulder of Everest, the summit lit up gold, and Nuptse and Lhotse stretched out on either side. I sat on a rock and cried a little, which I'm not embarrassed to admit. It is an absurd amount of mountain.

Would I Recommend It?

Yes, with caveats. Take your time — 12 days, not 9. Listen to your body, not your ego. Buy travel insurance that covers helicopter evacuation, because if you get sick up there, walking down isn't always an option. And tip your porter generously; they earned it a hundred times over.

I didn't climb Everest. I walked to its front door, caught my breath, and walked back down. That was enough.