Asia - Everest Base Camp Trek




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kuroneko
Jun 14, 07, 5:48 am
Wondering if any of you out there has arranged a fully-supported tented EBC Trek (not tea house) and if so, which company you might be able to recommend?

I know many of you would likely tell me to just fly to Kathmandu and hire a guide and porters on my own, but at my age and time constraints (not a young backpacker anymore;)), I would prefer to pre-arrange the whole trek in advance, show up, and have someone else take care of the details, including arranging the flight to Lukla.

Main thing is not to have any (or at least minimize) nasty surprises.


kuroneko
Jun 19, 07, 3:35 am
Anyone? :)

sfvoyage
Jun 23, 07, 3:24 am
My partner did an Everest Base Camp trek in June 2003 (to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first summit). I know that he had the entire trek organized before he left for Nepal, but I don't know the name of the trekking company but it is the trekking company owned by Jamling Norgay (Tenzing Norgay's son) and the guy who wrote the Lonely Plant Nepal (Stan something). Do a google search (I did a quick one and found that Jamling Norgy has a trekking company he runs out of Darjeeling, India, but my partner said it has an office in Kathmandu). He and his friends did the entire trek sleeping in tents, and had sherpas, cooks and guides. In fact there was more staff than trekkers. But he said that the food was fantastic, the guides were great and the sherpas carrying everything were a lot of fun to hang out with. My partner also gave me a few tips to pass along to you: (1) the base camp is not much of anything - in fact it's rather dirty with all the garbage around. Plus he found that those at base camp who are doing a summit attempt were rather rude, since they just thought of the trekkers as curiosity seekers. He had a much better time climbing the Kala Pattar peak (spelling?) which actually gets you to a higher elevation than Everest base camp; (2) get your own tent; they are cramped when trying to sleep two plus your stuff; (3) the higher you go, the more you need to pee, especially at night. My partner took an extra water bottle that he would pee into at night while sleeping in the tent, and then just pour it out in the morning. He said that it was so much better than climbing out of the tent, fumbling around in the dark and trying to pee in the cold dark night (I know, not a great topic for discussion, but a good tip); (3) make sure that your sleeping bag is comfortable for very cold temperatures. My partner was cold even though his sleeping bag was supposed to be for -20 celsius; (4) when booking the trek, ask that the guide be someone that has summitted Everest. It makes for a much more interesting trek when you can ask someone who's summitted lots of questions. My partner's guide summitted with the first woman to summit Everest, and he had great stories about saving her life a few times. Hopefully all this information will get you started.




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