[Kara] Should You Trek To Everest Base Camp?

Now that we've finished the EBC trek (that's short for "Everest Base Camp," of course), I've had a few people mention that they might be interested in doing it also.  Great!  Here are some things to keep in mind if you're considering it, especially with kids.

It is a long trek.  It's going to take you 11-12 days to hike up and back.  That's a long time to be out of your comfort zone.  You'll be sleeping in unfamiliar places every night and eating unfamiliar food all day every day.  If that's too hard for you (or your kids) to manage and still have the energy to work hard hiking for several hours a day, this isn't the trip for you.  I'd say that kids under eight years old would really struggle with this aspect.

There's a lot of hiking . . . uphill.  The adventure starts in Lukla which is at about 9,400 feet (2,860 m).  Base camp is at 17,600 feet (5,380 m).  So you are guaranteed to hike at least 8,200 vertical feet between the two.  But trust me, you hike a lot more vertical feet than that.  We estimated that we hiked about twice that in vertical feet when we factored in the acclimatization hikes and passing down into and then up out of the valleys along the trek.  Even on our "downhill" days as we hiked out of the mountains we still hiked UP a lot.

Having said that, it's definitely not too strenuous for kids.  If you can hike ten miles in a day and if you can hike up 2,000 vertical feet within two miles, then you can conquer any day of this trek.  The training hike we did was hiking up Black Mountain via the Rhus Ridge trail.  It was about five miles up and 2,000 feet up--with most of the elevation in the first mile and the last mile before the summit.  Hiking up and down it was a perfect training hike.

It's cold.  I knew it was going to be cold (the high temperature at Everest Base Camp this time of year is around 25 degrees F (-3 degrees celsius).  But what I hadn't realized was how many days you are in those very cold temperatures (about a week) and how little relief you get from the cold.  The guesthouses aren't insulated.  Their construction barely keeps the wind out.  I was incredibly grateful to not be sleeping in a tent on our trek, but I'm not sure the tents were much colder than the guest house bedrooms.

You do have a warm sleeping bag and a warm down coat--and all the other layers you brought.  But I found that the cold was most difficult part of the trip for me.  At some points, my body reacted to the altitude by becoming slightly feverish and I didn't have the ability to regulate my own temperature well.  I could pile all my layers on me and still be shivering because I wasn't generating enough body heat for those layers to retain.  I really, really wished I had some Little Hotties hand warmers with me.  Why they don't sell those high up on the mountain, I'll never know.  I would have paid a FORTUNE for them.

Every member of your family has to want to do this.  It is hard.  And it is hard every day for 12 days. My kids were amazing.  None of them complained about the hiking, the food, the cold or the conditions, but that's because they wanted to be there.  They wanted to make it to Base Camp for themselves--not because I was pushing them to do it.  We'd had a lot of family talks about whether we should commit to this trek and by the time we did commit, every one of us wanted to be successful.  It would be rotten to take someone on this trek if they didn't want to be there.  It was hard enough for me to keep myself motivated each day!

Hire a guide and porters.  Yes, you can totally hike this trail without a guide and without porters.  My brother has done it.  I met lots of other people on the trail doing it.  If you're a fit 20-something or 30-something then by all means try it without assistance. (If you want to read about my brother Tristan's experience, check out his great book Everest Pilgrim.)

But if you're hiking it with your kids, you don't want to make it any harder on the kids by making them carry real packs.  We carried just water, snacks (Snickers bars) and extra layers in our day packs.  Our porters carried the rest of our gear.  Bless them!  As the air gets thinner, hiking becomes harder.  Our guides even volunteered to carry our kids' day packs a few times when the kids were struggling, and that made a huge difference for the kids.  The whole experience would have been much more difficult for our kids if they were managing bigger packs.

And I, frankly, would not do it with kids without having a guide.  It's peace of mind--and a type of functional insurance--for you.  On the trek, you'll have to spend your post-hiking energy taking care of your kids and you'll be incredibly grateful to have someone taking even a few things off of your to-do list.  Also, you likely won't be at your best once you cross above 10,000 feet (or 12,000 feet or 14,000 feet or 16,000 feet).  You might get sick.  You will almost definitely be crabby because of altitude-related discomfort and somewhat mind-fogged.  You will want to have an experienced adult there with you who can reassure you that you're doing great . . . or that you're not.

Was it worth doing?  Yes!  We had a fantastic experience.  It was hard and it was long and it was cold.  But it was completely worth it.  It was especially rewarding to accomplish this hard thing as a family.  Plus, the views are, literally, unsurpassed.  As are the bragging rights. 😁