Everest Base Camp Spring Trekking

Retiring from his position at the Service late last year, Paul Connelly had set himself a goal to achieve with his newfound time: improve his fitness and health and see a bit of the world along the way.

Taking up a challenge – whether personal, professional or for a charity – was not alien to him and so he compiled his own personal bucket list to keep him occupied. The first point to tick off was to trek to Everest Base Camp and see the wonders of the mountains in this area of the Himalayas. And with that goal in mind, Paul’s Everest Base Camp review starts…

I was daunted by the number of companies that were keen to take you trekking and all had slightly different ways of achieving the goal of getting to Everest Base Camp at 5336m above sea level as safely as possible. After a good bit of research, I decided to go with World Expeditions. They seemed to have everything I was looking for: a good reputation, a fair and ethical policy for looking after the porters and Sherpas, provided all of our food and water, and were sensitive to the environment that we would be travelling through. So, I booked via their London office and was a regular voice on the phone asking all sorts of questions in an effort to be as prepared as possible. I have to say I was delighted at the support and advice I received prior to the trip, which filled me with great hope for the actual trek itself.

I opted to go late March, early April as I was hoping to see the teams prepare to make the summit of Everest, which is usually achieved from May each year. After three flights, I arrived safely in Kathmandu where later that evening I met my group, another 8 people, all under the watchful eye of Binod Llama our head guide and his team comprising of porters, Sherpas and cooks who would be with us every step of the way. We all got to know each other on a day of sightseeing in Kathmandu before we left the next morning on the first flight out to Lukla.

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