Nepal - Everest Three Passes trek

[Nick S]

A friend and I recently hiked the Three Passes route in the Everest Region, so I thought I'd post a few words about it.

During our research on the Everest Base Camp trek, we came across the option of hiking over three high passes but still including the trip to Base camp. It's certainly a harder option compared to the Lukla-EBC return route that most people do, but the experience of climbing over the passes and seeing much more of the high country including the Gokyo lakes was the decider for us.
We seriously thought about walking in from Jiri, but considering our time in Nepal we were unsure that the extra week of walking would allow us enough time to fly back to Kathmandu in time for our international flight. Having said that, we ended up smashing our original time prediction, and had 10 days extra to explore around Pokhara and the Annapurna region.. But that is another story.

So we flew straight into the town of Lukla at 2860m elevation, where the vast majority of EBC trekkers start their journey. The flight in had great views and the landing was quite decent considering. We only found out later that our aircraft was the same one which crashed close to Kathmandu airport 2 days later with no survivors. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19755010 Certainly gave us something to think about...

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From here we walked through small villages, along steep banks and over bridges, up to the town of Namche Bazar at 3440m. Just before Namche is the first real climbing you experience, and although it is only a 500m ascent you don't know whether to curse the altitude or your own lack of fitness.. This is the largest town in the Everest area, and where most people spend an extra aclimatisation day including Pete and I.

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Check out the map to give you an idea of the region:

Our route went as follows:
Lukla
Benkar
Namche Bazar (extra acclimatisation day)
Tengboche
Dingboche (extra acclimatisation day)
Chukkhung
Lobuche via Kongma La
Gorak Shep including side trip to Everest Base Camp
Dzongla
Gokyo (2 nights)
Thame
Lukla
Kathmandu

[Nick S]

From Namche we continued on to Tengboche at 3870m, then Dingboche at 4410m the following day.
As you can see the track is wide and well trodden by thousands of people, donkeys and yaks.

Pete and I both only started really feeling the altitude once we reached around 4000m. The air definitely feels thinner here and I found I needed to take rests more often. Either that or reduce my pace drastically. After a while in altitude you begin to reassess the difficulty of climbing up a certain distance. A hill you might consider at sea level to be a quick run up, at altitude would be an arduous plod.
Also headaches became an unwanted companion when on the way up. Although we were careful to assess ourselved for signs of altitude sickness in taking the recommended times to acclimatise and not to ascend further if experiencing any symptoms such as headaches, nausea, lethargy, lack of appetite, ataxia, etc. Pete and I both experienced mild headaches toward the end of a few days once we had reached our destination for the night. Including Dingboche, Lobuche and our highest camp at Gorak Shep. I took Diamox on the way up to speed acclimatisation, and apart from the occasional tingling sensation in my toes had no problems. I figure if the side effect profile is so low, why not try and speed up acclimatisation and avoid as many headaches as I could. Not to mention worse things like HAPE or HACE, but yeah it's not a magic pill..

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I took along a pulse oximeter which measures the levels of oxygen bound to the haemoglobin in your blood. It's a marker of how well your lungs are working at exchanging oxygen from the air into your blood. Healthy people are usually above 97% at sea level, so to see Pete saturating 86% was interesting and slightly alarming. We attended a presentation on altitude sickness in Dingboche, given by one of the volunteer docs working at the nearby town of Pheriche. Apparently your oxygen saturation has no correlation with acclimatisation. I guess acclimatisation is your body getting used to the idea of having less oxygen hanging around. If you stay at altitude long enough then you will develop a higher haematocrit, or number of red blood cells in the blood to compensate, hence altitude training for athletes, but we weren't hanging around that long.

After an extra day at Dingboche we continued alongside the impressive Ama Dablam to Chukkhung. Surrounded by walls of mountain including the Lhotse face at over 8000m! Incredible to see.
The first pass was Kongma La at 5535m elevation. Considered the toughest of the passes, and certainly not a walk in the park once you get above that 5000m mark. We left our lodge at 6am and reached the pass around 11am. An incredible experience to sit among the prayer flags and gaze at the endless snowy peaks at eye level.

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Descending from the pass, we crossed the seemingly endless rocky desert of the Khumbu glacier before reaching Lobuche (above) at 4920m for the night.

[Nick S]

Today was the big day! We continued up alongside the Khumbu glacer, leaving our packs at Gorak Shep and walking the final few hours to Everest base camp at 5364m. To be honest it's actually quite a harsh desolate place, but awesome to reach the site of so many stories and adventures that I had read of. The actual base camp isn't that impressive but interesting nonetheless. It was worth continuing 20 minutes past the unofficial base camp for which most people are satisfied with, especially to walk right upto the Khumbu Icefall, something to behold.
Returning to Gorak Shep for the night, our plan was to climb a nearby hill called Kala Patthar but Pete and I were both feeling quite unworthy in the morning and decided to head back down to Lobuche.

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The walk through Dzongla over the Cho La pass to Gokyo was one of the nicest areas in the region. Top weather, awesome views down the valley to Ama Dablam, surrounded by open grasslands and Tolkienesque peaks above us.

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[Nick S]

The Cho La is the most popular pass as many people aim to visit the Gokyo region on their way back from Everest base camp. It was the only pass with snow at the time of our crossing, and while we crossed a few hundred meters of snow, it was firm and easy to cross, even in Vibrams. If you hike the three passes later in the season than you can expect more snow and may need to take crampons etc, but October is the most popular month for the fact that the weather is awesome and it's not that cold yet. We didn't need to use our down jackets at all during our walking.
We stayed in Gokyo for two nights, giving us time to hike upto 5th lake, our friends even continuing onto 6th lake and Cho Oyu base camp.
The final pass Renjo La, although not the highest at 5340m, felt the hardest to climb with the last 100m being the most exhausting I have ever done. But this might have been due to the fact that we were worn out after being at over 4000m for the past week. Great views of Gokyo lake and Mt Everest from the pass, then continuing down the valley to Thame 3820m for the night.

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I will remember Nepal for this often seen view of mountains towering above the clouds.

From Thame we started early to complete the circuit to Namche Bazar, stopping for a coffee and then speeding off down the hills back to our starting point Lukla. Returning to the thicker air was like having no fatigue and a continuous energy source, we found that we could perform feats unheard of in the highlands, like running up endless steps and sprinting over the line into Lukla. Overall taking us 14 days from Lukla to Lukla. We certainly were not expecting to complete the trek in that time, and considering the variability of peoples experience in acclimatising, you should allow at least 18 days to walk the Three Passes from Lukla.

Amazing place. It's a cultural experience as well, not so much a wilderness experience from the Tasmanian sense in that there are people all over the place, but we still had many times where it was just Pete and I. Both Kongma La and Renjo La we were able to enjoy by ourselves. Plus you get to meet heaps of interesting people in the lodges and play card games while wolfing down dal bhat.

We walked independantly without a guide, which is easy to do considering the ease of the track, hardly any navigation is required apart from asking a local where the start of the Kongma La track was. And you just choose any lodge that has a room for the night, most of them offer similar prices for rooms and food, although it pays to checkout the rooms and the feel of the place before taking off your pack. One thing I should add is that without a guide it could be difficult getting a timely flight on the return from Lukla if it's busy. Many of the larger organised groups appeared to be led straight through the airport while us independant hikers were pretty much ignored. Same for getting a bed at a lodge if it's really busy. But we had no problem during the time we went. I'm sure you could always sleep on a floor somewhere..
I used a 65L One Planet Mungo weighing about 13kg, but you could minus about 2kg for a lower season bag and less camera gear. You don't need to take a tent, stove, or sleeping mat.
I'm sure Pete will chime in regarding footwear, but you can get away with pretty lightweight gear, and don't take almost mountaineering boots just for the walk to EBC and back, It's an easy track.

Nick S

[flatfoot]

Thanks for posting! Awesome photos!

I set of in just under 7 weeks. I'm doing the Everest Circuit and will be in Namche on 25 December. Our crossing of the Cho La is on New Years Day.

[andrewbish]

Thanks for sharing, Nick

[wayno]

looks ho hum (wipes drool off chin)

[Peter C]

Nice report Nick, thanks mate.

I was Nicks walking companion for this trip. As a source of information for anyone interested in walking in minimalistic footwear I did 100% of the walk in a pair of Vibram 5 Fingers. I had tried to find information elsewhere on the net about the trail conditions before setting out to *&^%$#@! their suitability and could find nothing, so thought I'd post up here for other peoples information. If your used to walking in something similar then you will have no problems with trail surfaces, the only proviso being that if you plan on doing this walk and expect fresh or deep snow your going to get cold feet! (dur!!) I had numb toes on a couple of mornings when setting out in sub zero conditions, not helped by accidentally dipping a foot in a stream, but they thawed quickly once moving. Vibrams being so thin soled don't insulate against ground temperature very well, so constant walking across frost or snow will give you cold feet.

Trail surfaces were a mixture of smooth and rough, quite stoney at times, but posed no problems. The shoes generated alot of interest amongst other travelers, so much so I began to feel a little self conscious at times. One elderly Russian man summed up his thoughts on seeing them by announcing authoritatively and without preamble in a heavy Russian accent: 'You are stupid'.

It was amazing the variety of footwear, people walking in almost full plastic mountaineering boots (ouch), to one porter wearing a very pretty pair of bright pink crocs (he had walked in from Jiri in them, a 6-7 day walk before you even start the climb to EBC). Most of the porters carrying loads that would weigh between 20 and 40 kg's wore a Volley like local shoe, a pair of slide on sandal thing, or a pair of Nike/Reebok style sneakers.

The guys below were just below Namche Bazar having come up a 800meter climb with the loads you see.

[wayno]

one of the problems moving to minimalst footwear like vibrams can be that most people are used to walking around in outdoor footwear that regularly has between a 4-8mm heel raise so the calves are tensioned for that raise..
if you go into something with no heel raise it can take time for the calf to retension to accomodate the lower heel. your calf will hae increased tension on it and may need a bit of time to lengthen enough to cope with the lower heel. there are a fair no of calf inuries where people go to miinimalist footwear and do too much activity too soon, especially amongst runners.

[forest]

Thanks for the report. Looks amazing.

Great to see the vibram toe shoes in action. Never knock anything until you have tried it.
With a light pack and plenty of training/conditioning I believe minimal shoes are excellent.
Just don't expect things to work instantly though or you may be sorry.

Which model did you have on ??

[Peter C]

I was using the Trek Sports, found them excellent, and for other walks I have done, you may remember a report I posted up a earlier this year about doing the Eastern Aurthur's in them. I have a pair of KSO's also, but find them too slippery underfoot, particularly on loose over hard. My only gripe is their longevity, the fabric tops and stitching areas are a little fragile, a sacrifice you make for weight I suppose. The current pair have lasted about a year with some tough walks in there, so I guess thats ok... if they were not so damn expensive.

What you say Wayno is very true, there is reams of information online on the topic, I have done a lot in them prior to this walk, and accordingly had no problems.

Here is a pic from the top of Kongma La (Thanks Nick)

[stepbystep]

Great report and pics Nick, well done. It's on my bucket list, hopefully not too far off...

lol at the Russian guy Peter. I tend to agree but each to their own!!!

[Nuts]

Nice Pics Nick/Peter.
Would a bivy bag or tarp, small tent be worth carrying out there for the more remote track in busier times?
Iv'e seen those porters with a 10x stack of beer (cartons), incredible, embarrassing. I doubt they were taking it far but something in the head strap carrying, would be impossible in a backpack to carry anywhere near that weight... especially in those 5 fingers

[flatfoot]

The loads those guys are carrying are amazing. It's going to be interesting to see any and all sorts of odd loads. That also looks like a nice stretch of forest.

I'm taking scarpas, however I've always preferred boots and it will be much colder.

Nick / Peter - what was the total cost of your trip?

[Peter C]

Nuts: From what we saw there would be no need to carry a bivy/tent/tarp for the areas outside of the EBC up and back walk, however I heard it recommended a sleeping mat can be a good idea as if you miss a room the owners will bunk you down on the floor. We went without a mat and had no problems, but we walked a little before the major peak. One place I did hear of people having trouble finding a room was Dzongla, the 'jumping off' town before Cho La.

Flatfoot: I cannot speak for Nick, an estimated cost for me, flights and insurances included would be in the vicinity of 2.1-2.2k for just the Three Passes Walk. The flights cost 1.7 of that. I ate fairly well tho (I have a worm) and indulged in many hot chocolates. We also spent a couple of weeks in Pokhara, did some mountain biking in Annapurna plus a few other activities, and bought some souvenirs which obviously added to the overall cost For the walk we budgeted on a generous 3 thousand rupees per day, about 35 Aussie dollars and arrived back with plenty of change. As Under10kg mentioned in his report on Annapurna you could get away with about 20 dollars a day if you don't like apple pie

Nick will be sure to let you know if I have missed anything!

[Nick S]

I wouldn't bother doing taking camping gear into the Everest region, it's just so setup for staying in lodges and why not take the chance. But certainly for a repeat trip somewhere else it would be a great way to get away from the crowds and explore some lesser travelled areas, probably hire a few porters to carry your tents/stove etc.
Cost for trip? Just over $2000 just to hike the Three Passes. Return from Kathmandu - Melbourne was $1300, then local flights from Kathmandu to Lukla return were ~200. Around 25-$30/day for food. Add more for side trip to Pokhara/Annapurna..

[north-north-west]

looks ho hum (wipes drool off chin)

+1

[ninjapuppet]

Brilliant Report you guys.

On the way from Gyoko down to Thame, you would have passed Kyazo Ri (aka Kyajo Ri). Do you have any photos of Kyazo Ri?
if you do, PLeeeeaaase post! I'll be heading up to Machhermo and cutting across to the west from there.

[Nick S]

Hey ninja, I remember looking up at that pass on the way down and thinking 'no way I'm going back up there', but i'll have a look at my pics next time I'm on my desktop.
The nearby pass over to Tibet would be nice to do, if you were allowed...

[wayno]

hey Nick,
so did you just eat whatever was put in front of you?
any of the food look too dodgy to eat?
did you have to be very fussy about what you were choosing to eat ?
any probs with upset stomachs?

[Nick S]

Ninja all I could find was a pic of Pharilapche, taken after about an hours walk down from Renjo La, and a cloudy photo looking up to Kyajo Ri

Wayne:
There is a range of meals you can order from the lodges although the menus are all pretty similar, split into rice, potato, noodle, etc dishes, and of course the ubiquitous dal bhat.
Most people eat vegetarian in the high country, as any meat has to be carried up from lower areas and is more expensive. You can order chicken dishes, and sometimes yak, but I only tried yak once on our last night in Lukla, and wouldn't recommend it. I don't remember any dodgy food, considering the food we ate was either vegetarian or from a can, you would be unlucky to get food poisoning. Judging from some of the certificates on the dining room walls I think many of the lodge owners have completed a food preparation course. So no, I didn't have to worry much about food safety, actually it was Pete who ended up getting a case of salmonella diarrhoea from a panang chicken curry in Bangkok..

[wayno]

thanks Nick
interesting, i went to a talk at my club, they had done a guided trip... they advised against going solo partly because they believed you couldnt trust the food if you werent in an organised group....

[Nick S]

Regardless if you are with a guide or not, you eat from the same kitchen. Unless the guides know which lodges have bad food preparation but I imagine they choose where to stay based on other factors, e.g. friends with the owner, familiarity.
Still it probably pays to stay off meat once you are above Namche.

[Nick S]

Different story if you are in a large organized group like that American one who carried all the food on their own yak train! But the majority of people eat food prepared by the lodges.

[Rico]

When I spent few weeks in the Base camp region 5 years ago I stopped for food and a chat with the locals several times a day along the way, and i have been eating all kind of food including meat. It is tasty, inexpensive and I had no problems at all. I got really sick in Kathmandu in a upmarket restaurant, there is much higher risk of contaminated water and food in the cities I guess. Still, it is suggested to drink black tea the whole time instead of water.

[wayno]

zoomable photo of everest
have a look at the tents of basecamp at the bottom, hundreds of them, you can also zoom in to the western cwym and lhotse face and spot people.

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/outdoor-ne ... 10426.html

v

[Peter C]

That is an amazing photo Wayno, it got linked to me a couple of days ago. EBC is massive comparative to when we were there. Being able to spot those people climbing serves to give it some perspective, the photographers need a pat on the back for that one.

[wayno]

they are usually done on machines like the gigapan http://gigapan.com/cms/shop/store
the are preprogrammed for various models of camera tell it what zoom you're on for SLR's, let it rip and it automatically takes photos and moves the camera a set amount, ad builds up several rows of photos, run it through stitching software and there you have it..

[braddon79]

Guys,
Thank you for an informative and well written piece, giving me a great perspective, plus a tempting group of photos that make me want to see more. I am very jealous.
Congrats
Brad.

[gido]

Guys, fantastic trip! I was thinking going to Nepal in March-April doing Annapurna trek. But then I saw your report and it looks so amazing,
also kind of challenging for me. So the question would be is it possible to do it solo? As I understand there's not much wilderness down there
so solo trekking should be fine. What are your opinions on that? I assume the weather conditions could be not as good as you had in a peak season too.

Cheers,
gido