May 2023 my son and I made the trek to Everest Base Camp (EBC) with Helicopter return. We were also fortunate to be able to spend the night at base camp on May 16, 2023. One of the reasons I picked Highland Expeditions was because they offered the option to sleep at base camp.

The team at Highland Expeditions did an excellent job taking care of every detail of our trek. Passang was very responsive to my pre-trip email questions and provided a sense of confidence that they were experienced and knew what they were doing.

We were fortunate to travel with another couple from Germany which made the trip even more enjoyable. The weather was very much in our favour, it rained the first day but after day one it was sunny and perfect. Our group consisted of one guide, one assistant guide, two porters and four trekkers. We rarely saw the porters as they left out early each morning carrying our duffle bags. The trail was a bit more crowded than we thought it would be.

You must prepare yourself that the Tea Houses are not luxurious and the trek is very physical. There is no heat in the Teahouse bedrooms. Even with pre-trip physical conditioning and taking Diamox, it was still a challenging trek. Kalapathar was the most difficult part of the trek.