Island peak climbing with Everest Base Camp Trek

It shall be your first day in Kathmandu, Nepal after your arrival at TIA airport in Kathmandu. As you enter the airport, complete your formalities, then you can see one of our office representatives welcoming you at arrival terminals. You will be then transferred to your chosen hotel. Take a good rest or simply stroll around culturally affluent streets of Kathmandu valley nearby Thamel area. Overnight in Hotel in Kathmandu.

After breakfast we start a guided tour to several medieval and spiritual sites in Kathmandu which are also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the historic Durbar Square, the sacred Hindu temple of Pashupati Nath, the famous ‘Monkey Temple’ (Swayambhunath) and Buddhists shrine (BouddhaNath) which is one of the large Stupas in the world. Later after sightseeing program, we will introduce you with your trekking guide and have a small pre-trip meeting. You can also take an opportunity to hire/buy any last minute trekking equipment or bargain for your souvenirs at the many stores. You are advised to pack your things and be set up for your actual Everest base camp trekking adventure that will begin the next day. Overnight in hotel. Included Meal: B

Your adventure at Everest region begins as we pick you up from your hotel to airport and check into domestic terminals that boards you to small aircraft. Amazing views of snow capped mountains is seen if you sit at left side of the plane. In just 27 minutes, you will be landing among the heart of Himalayas at Tenzing Hillary Lukla Airport. This is the site from where your trekking activity begins. You will be amazed as soon as you step outside the airport feeling the cool air breeze. We do meetup our porter team at one of the restaurant where we also have a cup of coffee. Porters will arrange and assign our baggage and head ahead of us. In this way, slowly, checking into Pasang Lhamu gate, our Everest adventure begins. There will be a gradual ascend, descend, walking through left side raging Dudhkoshi river, have our lunch at Thadokoshi and finally stop at Phakding where our first day of adventure ends. Later we stay overnight at local lodge in Phakding. Walking time: 3 to 4 hours. Meals includes: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

We spend our first night at heart of Himalayas, today after having our early meal, we look forward to culturally affluent Sherpa village of Namche bazaar. There shall be plenty of incidents where we cross the suspension bridge, after lunch, great ascend starts including iconic Hillary bridge. Also we shall enter an entrance into Sagarmatha National Park. While taking a great ascend, we get to the point from where on a clear weather day, we get first view of Mt. Everest. We have a short rest at Chautara to get back our energy level. In this way, utilizing our first challenging ascend, taking choco-bars and dry fruits, finally we arrive at beautiful village of Namche Bazar. Later we stay overnight at local teahouse in Namche. Walking time: 5 to 6 hours. Meals includes: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

We will have a very important and very first of our acclimatization day today. This place is ideal for acclimatization at an altitude of nearly 3500m to 4000m. It is also called the rest day, but it starts with an active hike to nearby national park museum, and ascend to Syanboche, and finally up to Hotel Everest View for upclose views of Everest, Amadablam, Thamserku and other nearby peaks. At Namche, there are plenty of amenities, attractions and services on offer as bazar refer to market, we shall get anything required from simply lodging and fooding to gears and equipments required for trekking, peak climbing and even expeditions. There will be also an option to hike towards Khumjung from where there is an ancient monastery where we can see the Yeti scalp. We shall also give our visit to nearby Hillary school. Later we return to our same teahouse for second overnight stay. Walking hours 4-5 hours. Meals includes: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Today we look ahead at out next stop of Tengboche. Our day starts with a gradual hike across the hill with excellent views of Amadablam, Lhotse and other surrounding peaks. Then our trek follows more of descends to the site called Phungi Thenga where we have our lunch. Then after having our lunch, we cross the beautiful river and another challenging up-hill walk begins to top of hill called Tengboche. We reach at the top in late afternoon, so at that time it will be mostly chilly and as the altitude approaches nearly 4000m, it will be usually cloudy and cool in the evening. We will visit nearby monastery if its open and to bakery located next to it. A big ground is there where monks shall be playing football, hikers tenting camp and overall it will be wonderful to see great Himalayan views next morning and go for prayers at ancient large Tengboche monastery. Later we stay overnight at local lodge at Tengboche. Walking hours 5-6 hours. Meals includes: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

We will be more or less gaining 400 to 500m elevation with all descending via Deboche upto Imja Khola and hike up towards Pangboche, have our lunch and finally arrive at Dingboche. Here after arriving at Dingboche, we shall start to feel the difference in altitude after being there at 4410m above sea level. Dingboche also makes us feel that there is change in vegetation, as only small shrubs are visible. We can see the rocky settings, touching distance to Mt. Amadablam and after checking into our local lodge, we simply get flat on bed and take rest. We will stay overnight at local lodge in Dingboche. Walking hours 5-6 hours. Meals includes: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

It will be second acclimatization day of our Island peak climbing with Everest base camp trekking trip. Adjusting according to elevation is very important as it gives us a good chance for not to fall ill and move on towards our destination. We have our heartly meal as our breakfast and then take an uphill walk towards northern side to Chukkung valley. Cross a small river tributary, catch mind blowing views of Amadablam, Island Peak and other Himalayas while it will be a great adventure to be at top and enjoy the surrounding views. Cholatse, Lobuche, Amphu Gyabjen, Nuptse, Makalu, Thamserku and Chola Tsho Lake is seen from the top of hill that surround us from all directions. There is small tea shop there at top, where if open, we shall have a cup of ginger lemon tea. We return through the same path, have our lunch at tea house we stayed in and spend rest of the day in between. Overnight stay at local tea house in Dingboche. Walking time 3 to 4 hrs. Meal includes Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

We make our way towards Lobuche tonight ascending on the hill that moves gradually passing along Chortens that gives you chance to view the Himalayas. Soon an easy walk through valley takes us towards lunch site of Dughla. There is couple of resting points and restaurants to serve us. We have a quick rest here and walk forward to ascend Chukpo Lari. We get at even more higher elevation that offer even more majestic views not only of Nepal, but also upto Tibet himalayas. There are many memorials of mountaineers who lost their lives trying to climb Everest expedition. Slowly then the rocky path move ahead towards Lobuche witnessing Lobuche peak. And after one hour we finally arrive at one of the few tea houses over there. Straight to bed for rest, dinner and flat on bed to get ready for next day’s walk to Gorakshep. We stay overnight at local teahouse in local lodge. Walking time will be 4 to 5 hours with meals included Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We wake up early in the morning and our day begins after walking slowly through trek route full of rocks and dust. Facing the strong wind through Lobuche pass, we will first check in into our guest house in Gorakshep. First suggestion to do after getting here is to have a bowl of garlic soup. It really helps you to get out of altitude sickness and makes you easier to breathe. Slowly then we pass through the lateral moraine falling from Khumbu glacier. We can even hear the crackling sound of ice falling through Nuptse. We have our lunch, take rest, get a boost to our energy and walk to our destination Everest base camp. It shall be a great challenge to make it happen walking up, down, rocky path and finally in between a land of ice and rock. After this great achievement to step at base of Everest, we return towards our tea house at Gorakshep. Late we spend our night there too. Total walking time of 8 to 9 hours with meals that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Or, we shall also have a small twist today by heading to Gorakshep from Lobuche and later hiking up to Kalapathher for excellent sunset views, as the sunset views are more striking than sunrise. It will be the toughest task to get at top of Kalapathher. Spend overnight at Gorakshep and head to EBC tomorrow morning (next day) and walk back to Dingboche.

We hike up to Kalapathher today before sunrise to witness great views of Nuptse, Everest and other nearby himalayan peaks. While ascending the Kalapathher, we stop at several points to take lots of pictures, catch our breath, take a sip of water and again continue walking towards the top. Weather radar and prayer flags can be seen at top of Kalapthher hike. Later as the sun rises, we get down towards Gorakshep. We have our breakfast at local teahouse where we had stayed in and after few time hike to Dingboche via Lobuche and Thukla. We shall walk for 6 to 7 hrs, Included Meals: B, L, D

Today is short trek to the Island Peak base camp. From today we will stay in tented camps for the next two days, with food prepared by our staff in the camp. The trek to Island Peak Base Camp is on a moderately steep trail. First, we climb south then turn east to the contour of the valley. We then walk on a zigzag path below the southern flank of Lhotse Glacier moraine. We continue walking on a pleasant trail along a streamside. At southeast, we see the Amphu Labtsa route. A network route through the Imja and Lhotse glacier moraines leads to a spacious valley (Pareshaya Gyab) nearby the southwest side of Island Peak where we will set our tents. After a brief rest, our climbing guide will instruct you the methods of using climbing equipments and some technical climbing skills. Along with practical knowledge on using climbing gears like ice axe, climbing boots and crampons, harness, ascender, etc., you will also learn using ropes to go up and down. Although it is not mandatory to have prior training for Island Peak Climbing, we strongly believe that some training will boost your confidence and climbing skills to increase the chances of scaling the summit safely together with a fun experience. Walking time 4 hrs, Included Meals: B, L, D

We have allowed two days to climb the Island Peak, although we will probably not require more than one if weather conditions are fine. The strategy for the climb will be decided by our climbing leader at the time, taking into account the group’s acclimatization, weather, snow conditions and other factors. Generally we ascend from the Base Camp to the High Camp (5,600m/18,372ft), a steep, two-hour climb up grassy slopes on a well-defined trail. The site of the camp is just below the permanent snowline. On the summit day, we wake up very early in the morning (at around 2 am) to take advantage of the calm mountain weather in the mornings of Himalayan region. We climb through the steep rock gully. We get to the right side of the gully. The route then follows a ridgeline, which follows to steeper 100m headwall section, just below the summit ridge, about 60 degrees steep. Our climbing guide will fix rope in this section as the glacier has several crevasses. From the top of Island peak, you can see a breathtaking panorama of gigantic mountains – Nuptse (7,879m), Lhotse (8,501m), Lhotse Middle Peak (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,383m) which form a semi circle in the north and the stunning views of Makalu (8475m), Baruntse (7129m) in the east and famous expedition peak of Amadablam (6812m) in the. After enjoying the summit views, and taking pictures, we descend back to Chhukung. Walking time 10-11 hrs, Included Meals: B, L, D

It is always an better idea to plan at least one extra day. It comes into play incase of bad weathter, flight delays and cancellation. However if everything went according to planned itinerary, this day can be used as sightseeing around Kathmandu or other exciting one day activities nearby capital valley.

We follow the main route from Chukkung to Dingboche, Tengboche and to Namche. Therefore we can feel the drop in altitude and breathing becomes much easier than at Chukkung. We won’t miss our opportunity to immerse in natural beauty from different perspective. After reaching at Namche, we take shower and relax. Walking hours will be approximately from 7 to 8 hours and meals includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We return towards Lukla today through steep downhill through surrounding hills, forests, crossing the suspension bridges over river tributaries. The trekking route passing through the lower valleys gives excellent views of rhododendron forests, pine trees, snow covered peaks and the amazing feeling that strikes our heart after completion of our Island peak climbing and Everest base camp trekking adventure. We walk for around 6 to 7 hours today with meals including Breakfast, lunch and dinner included.

Our final trip conclusive day at Lukla as we shall board a flight towards Kathmandu in the morning. It shall be most probably a morning flight as weather are usually clear in the early time. After arriving at Kathmandu, you will check into your hotel and rest. Overnight stay at hotel in Kathmandu. Meals included breakfast only.

Finally after all your packing and everything is done, one of our office representative will drop you off towards international airport. Farewell friend. We hope you have liked our hospitality services and we look forward to see you again for next adventures in coming future. Meals includes : Breakfast.