We have done two treks in Nepal, the first to Everest base camp with my wife and daughter. The second to Poon Hill, Annapurna base camp and then Mardi Himal base camp by myself. Well, that’s my first lie. I had wonderful guides and porters, so I was not by myself! Shameless plug, we used Friendly Trekkers Adventures and the treated us wonderfully.
Let me give you one example of why you should consider an experienced guide. This one I can speak to because it happened to us. We arrived at Katmandu, but our luggage did not. Crap! We contact the airlines and United and Qatar start pointing fingers at each other. Several hours of WhatsApp and still no progress. Our guide Chandra then takes over. We take a taxi to the offices of Qatar. As were going in, Chandra turns to me and says, “When we get in there, look like your comfortable and ready to stay for days”. After most of an hour, one of the workers in the office who has been discreetly watching us rolls her eyes, gets up and helps us. 20 minutes later, the bags are found in Chicago. Dang, our flight to Lukla is in 12 hours. Delay? Nope, no problem, Chandra has friends. He arranges to have our bags helicoptered to Lukla when they arrive. One porter will carry for the 3 of us, the other will wait in Lukla and catch up to us with our stuff. Everything went to plan and two days later, we were reunited with our gear.
Some random thoughts:
I’m retired, so we chose to go up slowly and do more side trips. This worked well for us. We used 11 days going up. Spent two days at Gorak Shep and took the standard 3 days going back. Nobody got any altitude sickness including my wife who could not take Diamox. Slow is good if you have the time. There is plenty to see and do along the way.
My brother says that I’m allergic to crowds. Guilty. We chose to go on both trip in early December. A little colder, same good weather, about 1/6th of the October/November crowd. On our Everest base camp trek, they had just removed the covid quarantine requirement. So, we had the place literally to ourselves. It’s a unique data point that is not very useful for comparison, but it was an awesome trip.
My next trip was another curve ball. Our group of 4 became just me about one week prior to the trip. I emailed My guide and said, I don’t want hike Everest base camp again, please figure something else out. He did and it was great. No covid issues on this trip so I can pass on some hopefully useful observations. Early December is when their universities go on break. There were far more Locals hiking the trails than foreigners. Pros and cons to this. It is great to chat with these young people and learn about their culture and plans. The Nepalese seem to have a gregarious outgoing culture. It was easy to talk with people on the trail. We shuck beans and carried fire wood at tea houses. This broke the ice and allowed us to get to know them. There were two painful parts. One, currently polluting is ok in their culture. I think this is changing, but it hurts to be walking in this amazingly beautiful landscape and watch people throw their trash next to the trail. Second, apparently in their culture there is no concept of quite hours. Bring ear plugs! I installed a white noise app on my phone which helped a bit. The walls in those tea houses are thin!
The trip to Nepal (and back) is brutal. I’ve gone east, I’ve gone west. They both hurt. Plan for a day or two in Katmandu to recharge. There is plenty to do and see. Many, many historic sites. The “Monkey Temple” was our favorite. We also had a local teach us how to make momos. Our guide arranged all of this for us. The shopping here is also fun.
Friendly trekkers also have a home stay that I will definitely be doing next trip.
Be prepared to carry a lot of money with you. There is no reliable ATM along the trail. All expenses are paid in cash. Meals are relatively cheap. Snickers and cokes are not. Since their biggest bill is equivalent to about $8, you will be carrying a lot of them.
In the evenings we would have our Nalgene bottles filled with boiling water. We would then put them in our sleeping bags by our feet. They would stay warm all night.
Our guide helped us arrange to rent our sleeping bags, -20 C bags, from a local store. They smelled musty as if they had been packed away damp. The smell dissipated in a few days, but … When you collect your sleeping bags, take them out of the bag and smell them before you accept them.
Sleeping bag liners are nice for hygienic reasons.
You will be spending a lot of time in bed. Bring reading material. Once the stove in the common room burns down, it gets cold fast.
Boiled or filtered water gets more expensive as you go up the mountain and you will need a lot of it. Conventional water filters get compromised if they freeze while wet (the ice crystals open holes). A steripen has worked great for me. The “Tap” water is usually clean and free. I used the steripen on it and did not have any problems.
In some places there is the option of electrically heated bed. When we were there, it was about $10 a night. In Loboche and Gorak Shep, to me, this is a no brainer. I sleep better if I’m not cold, and it gets cold up there. In Gorak Shep, my water bottle froze solid during the night. This is a problem because you get thirsty even sleeping because your breathing harder and losing more water at altitude. Keep something to drink in your sleeping bag, or at least under the blanket (obviously in a robust container).
Final thoughts on guides. With a private guide, your schedule is flexible. Hiking is done at your pace. Not feeling great, fine, take a rest day. Your desires are not part of a group vote, the side trips are decided between you and your guide. Your guide learns what kind of accommodations you like and takes you to the right tea houses. He learns your interests (wildlife) and tries to accommodate you. We have used 3 guides and 4 porters across our various adventures with friendly trekkers and all have been great. Surprisingly, it did not cost us more than the advertised rates of group hikes. The social aspects of a group hike might be appealing, if you have a good group, but there is that allergy thing.