Trek, Walk, Hike To Mount Everest Base Camp From Tibet North Side.

We welcome you to visit our new Everest Basecamp Tibet Trek website. There is more thorough information about the trip, slideshows, photo galleries, video clips and much more. Thank you.

Often spelled: "Chomolangma", "Sagarmatha", "Qomolungma", "Chomolungma", "Qomolongma", "Chomolongma", "Qomolangma".

Leader: Dan Mazur, trekking throughout Tibet since 1986. Climber-leader-organizer of Everest, K2, and 12 "eight-thousand-metre-peaks".

Tibetan gazelles abound in the grassy valleys around basecamp. (Photo: J. Otto)

Leadership: During this full-service expedition, April members will benefit from the leadership (up to Advanced Basecamp) provided by Dan Mazur, trekking in Tibet since 1986 and climber-leader-organizer of Everest, K2, and 12 "eight-thousand-metre-peaks". He is a relaxed, friendly and well organized person, and a highly-skilled professional with 25 years experience in helping people explore the mountains, with the highest attention to detail, comfort, and safety. For more about Dan, please "click" on the Leadership link above. May members will be conducted solely by professional Tibetan guides and tour leaders.

Organization: Your expedition is organized by Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China expert with ten years experience in Tibetan Himalayan trekking and exploration and climbing. Jon is an excellent communicator, an international diplomat, extremely well organized, with superb attention to each and every detail. For more about Jon, please "click" on the Leadership link above.

Tibetan-English Speaking Guides for the Group (we are also able to provide Tibetan French and German speakers). Our trained guides will explain everything in extensive and historical/geographical detail to you, as they lead you on your trek and explain the goings-on as you drive through villages, trek to the base of Everest, and through the Tibetan plateau.

Professional Drivers and Licensed Tourist Transport: All of our vehicles in Tibet are licensed by the Tibetan Government and operated by trained Tibetans at the wheel. In Nepal we use government licensed drivers and transport as well.

Sherpas and Equipment Transport: Our trek includes transport of all of your equipment from Kathmandu to advanced basecamp, and returned to Kathmandu. While trekking, we DO NOT ask our full-service members to carry a heavy rucksack. We employ employ local herders and their yaks to carry your personal items, group equipment and supplies.

Safety: Our treks are allowed access to our extensive medical supplies, first-aid kits, medical oxygen, and a gamow bag in case of emergency. Thank you for being a well-prepared and safe team member!

Communications: During our expedition, we regularly update several websites, such as EverestNews.com with the progress of our expedition and our team members. In this way, your loved ones and friends, colleagues, and sponsors can stay tuned to how you are progressing on your way up to and back down from the summit. Our expedition is equipped with one "walkie-talkie" radio for each member, and a satellite telephone for international voice telephone calls and emails. Members wishing to use the telephone will contribute $4 per minute of use. Not only is the phone convenient for making voice telephone calls, it is normally very easy to send and receive small emails at the rate of 1 KB (one small email) per minute.

Group Equipment: We provide a plethora of well-used, top-quality, and time-tested equipment, group gear, and supplies, including: basecamp, and advanced basecamp tents; cookers, fuel, high-altitude food, walkie-talkie radios, etcetera. Please see the above EQUIPMENT link, to study what we bring for your use and safety.

Cooks and Food: On the road we eat in the local restaurants as available. In basecamp and advanced basecamp our skillful and hard working cooks prepare three hot meals each day with a very healthy diet of fresh vegetables, cheeses, eggs, and fresh as well as tinned fruits, meats and fish (all meats and fish are prepared separately out of respect for the vegetarians in our midst). They supply you with unlimited hot-drinks, the key to successful acclimatization. We have large weather-proof kitchens and dining tents, with comfortable chairs and tables.

The Happy Tea Shop of Tingri serves hearty meals, freshly prepared. (Photo D.L. Mazur

Personal Trekking Equipment: Good quality leather walking boots are required. You will need to bring your own personal trekking equipment, including rucksack, good quality leather boots, down/duvet jacket, wind/waterproof clothing, sleeping bag/mat, etcetera. You will need to bring your own daily cold snacks ( a wide selection of snacks are readily available in Kathmandu). Please see the above EQUIPMENT link, to study what is needed.

Team Member Experience: All members are required to be very fit and active walkers. No further experience is required. It is also required that all members will have an awareness of altitude sickness, frostbite, and the recognition of their symptoms, prevention, and treatment. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, members need to join with a spirit of friendship, teamwork and cooperation, and be ready to work with the group and be a good "team-player".

Fitness and Health: To participate in this expedition you must be a very fit and active walker in good health. Prior to joining our group, please see your doctor and obtain the necessary permission and advice, as well as medications for travel in extremes of altitude, and also for exotic locales. Note: You can purchase all necessary medicines inexpensively with no doctor's prescription in Kathmandu. Make sure you have physically trained yourself very thoroughly before joining this trek to the base of the highest mountain in the world. We look forward to trekking together with you!

Introduction: Trek to Everest

This trek to the base of the highest mountain in the world, allows you to enjoy the incredible beauty of the Tibetan Plateau, and walk to a very high altitude, all at a very careful pace without having to carry a heavy rucksack, while enjoy freshly prepared meals and lots of hot drinks, all important for acclimatization. The logistics are taken care of for you, so you may enjoy the pure and pristine environment around Everest.

Detailed Description

The trip begins in the ancient and colorful city of Kathmandu (you could also start in Beijing). You stay in a comfortable, simple, clean, hot-water hotel, at minimal cost (single rooms at: $20, Ł9.50, €14) (double rooms at $30, Ł13, €19. Breakfast is included) and sample some of the very reasonably-priced tasty Nepalese, Tibetan and Western-Style cuisine, available at the hundreds of local restaurants. During your free days in Kathmandu, while your Chinese visa is being processed, you shall finalize arrangements, purchase and hire the bits of equipment you might be missing at the hundreds of mountain-climbing and trekking equipment shops in the neighborhood (with low prices, as well), and take time out for trinket hunting, with suggested visits to explore the 17^th century splendors of the Monkey Temple, the Durbar Square and old Kings Palace, as well as the ancient cities of Patan, and Bakhtapur. If you are concerned about the altitude and have purchased Diamox (acetylzolamide), which is inexpensively available with no doctor's prescription in Kathmandu, this might be the time to begin taking it.

After the finalization of your Chinese visa on Wednesday, very early on Thursday morning we set out in a bus for the 4 hour drive to the last Nepal town of Kodari at 1,770 meters. We clear Nepalese customs and immigration, then hire local porters and vehicles to carry your bags across the Bota Kosi River on the Friendship Bridge, to Zhangmu, the gateway town in Tibet. Upon entering Tibet, the clocks immediately go forward by 2 Ľ hours. Our secondary government liason officer will meet us in Zhangmu. After clearing Tibetan customs and immigration, a Chinese bus takes us up the windy road through the rolling hills to Nyalam town at 3,750 meters, and a basic "hotel". The smaller towns in Tibet are generally simple and rustic places, and this one is no exception. The topography here is quite interesting in that we are perched in the transitional zone where the Tibetan plateau rams into the Himalaya, then drops into the forested valleys and jungles of Nepal, and finally out into the Gangetic plain of the Terai and India. We stay over one extra night in Nyalam, to help adjust to the altitude, and during our "rest-day" in Nyalam, we take advantage of the interesting surroundings to walk to the top of local hills and savor the first glimpses of the Himalayan Giants.

On the road to Tingri, Himalayan Giants in the background. (DL Mazur)

In the morning we continue our bus-ascent into the Tibetan plateau, to the town of Tingri at 4,342 meters. There are superb views of Shishapangma, Cho-Oyu, and Everest as we drive into Tingri. The town itself is a very basic one-street hamlet surrounded by the tents of nomadic Tibetans. About ˝ of all ethnic Tibetans living in Tibet are nomadic or semi-nomadic. Our extremely rustic little hotel has an adequate restaurant, and it will be interesting to see if the high altitude has quelled our appetites for tasty fresh food. There are the ruins of an old fortress on a rise above town, and from here we can see the finest views of Everest, Lhotse, Cho-Oyu, and Shishipangma.

We will take a rest day in Tingri, and then, the following morning, after what for many is a relatively sleep-free night, we drive the 30 kilometers to Everest base camp at around 5,200 meters. The drive follows a dirt road along the Rongbuk Valley and has spectacular views of the Himalaya. Chinese base camp is located just near the medieval and active Rongbuk Monastery.

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Everest, seen from the Rongbuk Monastery (5,200 meters). (Photo: J. Otto)

We will spend several days resting, acclimatising, and organizing equipment into Yak loads at Chinese base.

We then spend the next days trekking up the amazing Rongbuk glacier to the "interim camp" and "advanced basecamp" (ABC), which is actually the true basecamp for our climb. There are gorgeous views of stunning peaks in the area, including Lakpa-Ri, perhaps the most climbable peak in Tibet. At 6,400 meters, ABC must be the highest basecamp in the world. For many of us trekkers, this will be the highest we have ever been in our lives and we will set a PERSONAL ALTITUDE RECORD. ABC is located on soft sand, and is suprisingly comfortable, for how high up in the Himalayas you are.

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Everest basecamp at 5,200 meters. (Photo: J. Otto)

Finally, its time to reverse our steps and head back to Kathmandu, where we will rest, shop, and celebrate for a day, and then fly home. Thanks for joining our trekking team!

1.	Arrive in Kathmandu. Our staff will meet you at the airport. Go to hotel.
2.	In Kathmandu - Bring Passport to Chinese Embassy, for Visa. Logistics, training, purchasing, packing, training, visit temples, city tour, shopping. Hotel and meals at members minimal cost.
3.	In Kathmandu - Pick up passport from Chinese Embassy. Logistics, training, purchasing, packing, training, visit temples, city tour, shopping. Hotel. We may choose to depart Kathmandu for Tibet on this day;
4.	Bus to Tibet; drive to Nyalam (3,750 meters). Hotel and meals at organizer's expense.
5.	Rest in Nyalam (3,750 meters). Walk around the local hills. Hotel.
6.	Bus to Tingri (4,342 meters). Hotel.
7.	Rest in Tingri. Explore surrounding hills. Hotel.
8.	Drive to Chinese Basecamp (5200meters). Camp.
9.	Rest in Chinese base. Organize equipment and supplies. Camp
10.	Walk gently in the hills surrounding Chinese base.
11.	Rest in Chinese base. Organize equipment and supplies. Camp.
12.	Walk with the yaks halfway to advanced base to interim camp (5,800meters). Camp.
13.	Rest in interim camp.
14.	Rest in interim camp.
15.	Walk with the yaks to advanced base (ABC) at 6400 metres. Camp.
16.	Walk with the yaks to advanced base at 6400 metres. Camp.
17.	Yaks transport equipment to Chinese base. Members walk down.
18.	Early morning drive to Kathmandu.
19.	In Kathmandu. Final packing, celebration, saying goodbye to new friends.
20.	Fly home. Thank you for joining our Mount Everest Expedition!

1.	Leader: Dan Mazur. Climber-leader-organizer of Everest, Cho Oyu, Pumori, and many other treks.
2.	Organizer: Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China Expert, with 10 years Himalayan trekking and climbing experience.
3.	Tibetan-English speaking guides for the group (we are also able to provide Tibetan French and German speakers).
4.	Licensed transport by bus to and from basecamp to and from Kathmandu, for you and your bags, including accommodation and meals in Tibet.
5.	Three hot meals per day throughout the journey. Shared sleeping accommodations in Tibet.
6.	Yak transport of all equipment from the road to and from advanced basecamp;
7.	Three hot meals per day in basecamp and advanced basecamp. Comfortable tables and chairs and dining tent;
8.	Skillful basecamp and advanced basecamp cooks;
9.	All basecamp and advanced basecamp food;
10.	All permit fees, trekking fees, and liaison officers;
11.	Use of group gear and supplies: basecamp and advanced basecamp tents; cookers, fuel, high-altitude food, walkie-talkie radios, satellite telephone, etcetera;
12.	Emergency equipment and supplies: medical oxygen, gamow bag, basecamp medical kit, high-altitude medical kits, etcetera;