Anyone done either of these treks? Might do 1 in the next year or two. Looking for advice on who to go with, etc.
I did the Annapurna Circuit in 1994. We hiked on our own, no guide service needed. It’s very easy to get a guest house in each town along the way, and you don’t really need to carry much with you that requires porters. I loved the trip, going over Thorong La, the town of Muktinath, and sunrise from Poon Hill were the highlights, but it was pretty amazing the entire time.
We took a total of 26 days, our little group of 4. I split off around day 21 and hiked up to the sanctuary on my own for the last 5 days. I felt that was well worth it even though that was the coldest section of the trek.
My experience is 25 years old but I’m happy to answer any questions I can.
what part of year did you go and how was the weather? What did you bring including clothes?
I’ve done the trek to Everest Base Camp. I flew from the capital, Kathmandu, to Lukla airport, which is at 9,300ft in a little twin engined plane that seats dozen or so. A flight to Lukla is not for those of a nervous disposition, it one of the most dangerous airports with a short runway on an incline on a mountain top with a 9,000 feet drop.
From Lukla the trek is gentle enough, following steps along the valley, crossing fast flowing streams on wire bridges. The landscape at this level is all fir trees, typically Alpine scenery, quite pleasant. You can stay in small guest houses made of handmade bricks and plywood. They cater for the large number of trekkers on this route. You can get a room and food and drink. Besides the trekkers, there are a lot of porters on the route carrying huge loads on their backs. Sometimes you see altitude aclimatised donkeys or yaks. I noticed that a lot of the food was carried this way and I could see chicken, which did not look very frozen. I resolved to eat only the most boring vegetarian food in Nepal to protect my stomach. It is no fun trekking when you are ill. After about three days, you start ascending beyond the tree line. That was hard. The air gets thinner and you start wheezing and you feel quite weak as porters carrying enormous loads overtake you. The mid point is a village called Namche Bazaar at 11,200ft, which is where everyone stays a few days to get acclimatised to the altitude. It has everything there, bars, cafes and massages for weary limbs. It is a beautiful mountain setting. All along the trek are temples and Buddhist shrines. The people are very welcoming, this is a tourist route and they make a good living. I was told that many are quite well off and own property in Kathmandu. Life is very different off the tourist trail.
From Namche, the scenery is glacier country with few trees and lots of fast flowing streams. You look up and can see another 4Km of mountains above you. The landscape is active, you can see rock falls from time to time in the distance. It gets colder and you have to be lucky with the weather. Sometimes clouds descend for days. Sometimes it snows and you can get stuck for days. I was so lucky. I went in early September, before the main trekking season and was blessed with fine weather.
There is a hostel close to Everest Base camp and you can visit where the expeditions start. It is actually quite a few miles from there to Everest itself. That part of the those on climbing expeditions. The scenery is, of course, breathtaking. So is the altitude, at 17,900ft the air pressure is half what it is at sea level. Altitude sickness is quite random in who it affects. Sometimes even the fittest get it bad and there are warning signs about it frequently on the trek. I found it a bit like putting your head out of a car window and when it is going at speed and the air blowing into your face, so you can’t breathe. That happened to me a few times in the night. I guess your body is not used to breathing more heavily to get the necessary oxygen. It can be quite unnerving.
The fellow trekkers are mixture of college kids doing a parent-financed ‘gap year’ adventure and urban professionals from around the world. I noticed that some decided to abandon their trip when they got a bit of cell phone coverage. I guess some have health insurance that covers ‘medical evacuation’ which involves a nice helicopter ride all the way back to Kathmandhu. The Everest base camp trek is very commercialised. But it is well worth it for the experience. I was fortunate enough to be there before the tourist trekking season started in earnest. You could see they were preparing for the tourist season with little market stalls selling souvenirs. I am glad I missed that. There is another season in March/April. If you go out of season it is LOT colder and you may not see much because of the cloud coverage. Sometimes there is a long wait for flights from Lukla back to Kathmandhu and the place steadily fills up with trekkers sleeping anywhere and everywhere.
I hired a guide to show me the way and carry some of my camera gear. I don’t think I would have made it without one. Leave carrying the heavy loads at altitude to the professionals. I found my guide and bought and hired all the cold weather clothing I needed in Kathmandu. There are knockoff versions of all the big labels. I got a lot of advice on what to take from my guide.
I’ve done much of the Annapurna circuit and it is absolutely wonderful. From what I understand, the route to Everest base camp involves climbing to a much higher altitude and is probably the more travelled route.
Here’s a good travel vlog of the Annapurna Circuit:
Stranger
We started in early October, I celebrated Halloween at Annapurna Base Camp before hiking out by Nov 2. It was cold in the Sanctuary, and pretty chilly crossing Thorong La, where they had just gotten a little bit of snow.
Elevation at the highest point in 17,800’ which is approximately the same as Everest Base Camp, although many of those treks go another 1000’ or so higher.
We followed a pretty standard itinerary. We met up in Kathmandu and took a bus to Pokhara where we got some supplies and one of our crew hired a porter. After a day there we took another bus to Besisahar and started trekking. The days weren’t too long as I’m a pretty experienced hiker, and you start at 3000’ so there are no altitude problems. You gradually work your way up to Manang, which is a major stop before heading up over the pass. We took an extra day there to relax and explore. Then two more nights working your way up the pass and sleeping at elevation (14000’) before the big day going over Thorong La (17,800’) and down to Muktinath (12,500’). That’s a big day, and the longest hike of the trip. The elevation is no joke, then you descent 5000’ to your guest house.
We took an extra day in Muktinath which is a really cool town and extremely exotic. The other two of our group caught up that day (they spent an extra day acclimatizing) and we hiked two more days before I split off, headed up to the Sanctuary. You can end the trek there as there is now good road access, and apparently many people do that. From the split I hiked with people I met along the way each day, climbing back up from Ghorepani (9000’) to ABC (13,500’) and back out to the road near Birethanti (3500’) descending 10,000’ in two days. Then I grabbed a taxi and headed back to meet up with my group in Pokhara.
All in all, an extremely cool trip. I’m sure the experience has changed over time, but it wasn’t overly commercialized back then. It wasn’t wilderness either, but I often found myself alone or nearly alone for hours at a time.
While there are plenty of companies offering tour packages on professional looking websites, which cost thousands, it is quite easy to organise a trip yourself. Fly to Kathmandu, stay in the tourist area of Thamel. Then hang out and talk to the local companies to arrange a tour and a guide if you need one. Trekking is a gentle exercise and you don’t need all the stuff associated with professional expeditions, that is quite a different league. It kind of brings it home to you when you pass an area that has memorials to climbers who did not make it. Expect to see a fair amount of damage from the huge earthquake that hit Nepal in 2012. The base camp was destroyed by avalanches.
It is possible to take a bus and walk to Lukla, but that would add several days and your legs will certainly be taking a lot of strain.
I visited also Pokara, a town at the start of the Annapurna trail. A very pretty setting by a lovely lake surrounded by mountains. Some of the hotels are owned by retired Gurkas, Nepals famous military men.
Nepal is a wonderful country to visit and though the mountains are the big draw, it also has a lot of tropical jungle and tiger country as well. It is well worth an extended trip over a few weeks or multiple visits.
I did the Annapurna Horseshoe in September 1994. I had considered the other possibilities, but chose that. Everest is what Japanese climbers call a “piston”, it is in and out, you go back over the same route. That sounds less interesting.
The Annapurna massif has a number of peaks, and the terrain changes rapidly from green and semi-tropical to dry and stony, looking rather like Tibet 0 and the northern part of the horseshoe is on the Tibetan border.
I hired a guide and a porter in Kathmandhu. On the way I met lots of tourists who lugged their own packs, but I decided to enjoy, for once, the luxury of somebody else doing the heavy lifting. Plus, I felt I was doing something goof for the local economy. Those guys really, really need the money,and the alternatives involve backbreaking work for a pittance. I saw porters carrying everything from assembled beds to kerosene or food for the guest houses. Guess who got paid more? I got more entertainment from having two Nepalis, including when they sang, and it made for a more interesting trip.
The practical side? Well, that was back in 1994. Most of the way there was no lighting in the guest houses, so you need d torch after dark, and anyway you soon get used to hitting the sack very early, and starting out early. It got dark by seven, and light around six. The nights were cold, the guide suggested I rent a down jacket, and I did so.
Back then there were plenty of guest houses along the way, never more than about two or three hours apart. We would stop and have some tea or lunch, depending on the time. Oh yes, you need to be a real hard drinker. You dehydrate quickly in the dry and relatively thin air.
Thin air? Somebody asked about Everest, see my answer there. The altitude is no problem if you take it slowly. I was told that younger people have trouble more often because they force the pace. If you feel really bad you can just drop back to another guest house. That said, you don’t sleep well and tend to have a dull headache and a dry cough.
I booked a tour for 28 days but did it in 21 days at what I thought was a leisurely pace. Maybe the food has become more varied, and mabe more places have showers, or at least, warm water. (Solar?) Life is much more spartan there, or at least, it was back in 1994.
Who to go with? Take a friend if you wish, but make he sure he or she can put up with the conditions. Otherwise, get a guide and a porter in Kathmandhu. But don’t go alone, a few lone travelers have disappeared.
Three years after doing that trip, I went to Switzerland. I was disappointed. Nepal was something else.
If you want more information, I would be glad to help.
I did the base camp trek a few years ago with a company called Exodus. They’re a UK company but there were plenty of nationalities in the group of around 16.
The trekking and scenery were just about the best I’ve ever experienced. The food was dal bhat every meal which was recommended by the tour guide as least likely to cause illness. Plenty of our group did get ill mind, but not bad enough to stop everyone reaching the base camp.
The only downside I would say is that we went in December. It went dark relatively early and there wasn’t a lot to do in the evenings, and it was cold at night. There wasn’t much in the way of hot showers. Back at Lukla the planes were delayed a couple of days due to cross winds and several people were so fed up of waiting they paid $500 each for a helicopter flight back to Kathmandu.
Never been much of a hiker, but always thought Everest base camp would be cool. I’m sure I would be shunned by the crowd.
Oh well. I skied Chacaltaya. I got my story.
Shunned? Did you get autocorrected from “stunned”?