Advices : Give yourself a few days after the trek before you have to fly home. Flights were delayed for 3 days near the end of our trek. Some people were stuck in Lukla for 3 days waiting with no way out. If they had to fly the next day home, they would have missed their flight.
Mentally Prepare. Depending on your level of comfort with the outdoors, you may need to prepare yourself for life in the mountains. Luckily, I am a lover of the outdoors and very comfortable with the mountain life, including camping, bugs, dirt, baby wipe showers, and going to the toilet outdoors! However, for some who are more comfortable with the four seasons than a campsite, you may need to prepare yourself for what is to come. All accommodation on our trek to Everest Base Camp is in small tea houses, run by the local Sherpa people. You will have a bed to sleep in (albeit not the most comfortable bed in the world, but a bed to say the least), in a twin-shared room. There are options for showers lower down on the trail, if you decide to use them, however, many people keep clean by using baby wipes and a bowl of warm water each day. The toilet situations can be difficult at times, as in the tea houses they are generally not Western-style toilets, rather just a hole in the ground instead of a toilet bowl. You will also need to be prepared to use the great outdoors at times when you are on the trail with no tea house nearby. You do need to prepare yourself for these things, as you do not want to arrive on the mountain and have higher expectations and be disappointed.
180retreats is launching a trekking expedition on the Everest in April 2019, read more on Trekking Everest Base Camp. The following day we rise early to take our flight to Lukla, the mountain town where trekking begins. We have a short day of trekking to get ourselves acclimatized and plenty of time at our first guest house for yoga, meditation, reflection, meeting locals and rest.
Advices : Pack a map and EBC trekking book. You will want to reference regularly, check altitude symptoms, illnesses, your route and what to expect.
Go with an Established Tour Company You probably think I threw this in here just to give our own company a plug so its probably better to relate it with a story. My aunt went on a trek to Everest a few years back and decided not to use our company because it cost $50 more than the independent guide she found. Everything went well until she got back to Lukla where bad weather was limiting the number of flights going out. Our good relationships with the locals meant we were able to get our clients on some of the flights. On the other hand, my aunt was stuck for 2 days and missed her international flight making that $50 look like a lot less of a bargain. She told me this after the fact otherwise I would have tried to help but its a good story since it highlights how important having good local relationships is and its just one way of many an established company can add value.
