Your trip starts the moment you walk out of Tribhuvan International Airport into the noise and colour of Kathmandu. A member of our team meets you at the gate, helps with your bags, and drives you to your hotel near Thamel, the city's tourist quarter. The rest of the day is yours, depending on when you land. Sleep off the jet lag, wander streets packed with gear shops and bakeries, and join us in the evening for a short welcome meeting where you meet your guide.

Kathmandu deserves at least a day, and this is it. In the morning, we visit some of the city's most famous sites, such as Boudhanath, one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world, and Pashupatinath, the sacred Hindu temple complex on the Bagmati river. The afternoon is for practical things. Your guide checks your gear piece by piece, tells you what to rent or buy in Thamel (you can find everything there), and helps you pack a duffel of about 9 kilos for the porters. City clothes stay locked at the hotel until you return

An early start and one of the most exciting short flights in the world. The small plane weaves between green hills before touching down on Lukla's famously short, sloped runway at 2,860 metres. In peak season, flights often leave from Manthali airport instead, about four hours' drive from Kathmandu, and we confirm this with you before travel. After tea and introductions with the porter team, we ease into the trek with a gentle half day, mostly downhill, along the Dudh Koshi river to the village of Phakding. It feels almost too easy. That is deliberate. Starting slow is your first acclimatization decision.

The first real test. The morning is gentle: pine forest, riverside villages, and a string of suspension bridges. We enter Sagarmatha National Park at Monjo, where your permits are checked. Then comes the famous Hillary Bridge, strung high above the river, and after it the Namche hill, a steady two-hour climb through forest. Take it slowly and drink plenty of water. Around the halfway mark, if the sky is clear, you get your first small glimpse of Everest through the trees. By midafternoon you walk into Namche Bazaar, a horseshoe of colorful buildings set into the mountainside and the capital of the Sherpa world.

A rest day, but an active one. After breakfast we hike up to the Everest View Hotel at 3,880 metres, which serves tea on a terrace facing Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam. Sitting there with a hot drink and that view is one of the quiet highlights of the whole trip. We loop back through Khumjung, a village with a school founded by Sir Edmund Hillary, and call at the Sherpa Culture Museum on the way home. The afternoon is free for Namche's bakeries, coffee shops, and gear stores. Climbing high and sleeping low like this is exactly what your body needs.

One of the prettiest days on the whole trail. The morning path runs high along the valley side, wide and easy, with Ama Dablam pulling your eyes the entire way. We drop down to the river at Phunki Tenga for lunch, then climb about two hours through rhododendron and pine to the hilltop monastery of Tengboche, the spiritual centre of the Khumbu. If the timing works, we sit in on the afternoon prayer ceremony, where monks chant by lamplight while the peaks outside turn pink. Sunrise from here is worth setting an alarm for.

You can feel the altitude now. We descend through mossy forest, cross the Imja Khola, and climb gently to Pangboche, home to the oldest monastery in the region. Beyond it the trees thin out and disappear, and the valley opens into wide, high country ringed by giant peaks. By afternoon we reach Dingboche, a village of stone-walled potato and barley fields at 4,410 metres. The air is noticeably thinner and the nights are properly cold from here on. This is where a good sleeping bag earns its keep.

Our second rest day, placed just where the body needs it. In the morning, we climb Nangkartshang Ridge behind the village, up to around 5,000 metres. It is a stiff walk, but the reward is huge. Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world, appears on the horizon, along with the enormous south wall of Lhotse, Island Peak, and Ama Dablam from a completely new angle. We come down for lunch and take the afternoon off. Nap, read, drink tea, and be honest with your guide about how you are feeling.

A shorter but serious day. We walk up the wide valley to Thukla for an early lunch, then tackle the steepest climb of the trek so far: about 45 minutes up loose moraine to Thukla Pass. At the top stands a row of stone memorials to climbers who died on Everest, strung with prayer flags. Most groups go quiet here for a while. The trail then levels out and follows the edge of the Khumbu Glacier to the small settlement of Lobuche, close to 5,000 metres.

The day you came for. We leave early, following rocky trails beside the glacier for two to three hours to Gorak Shep, the last settlement on the route. After an early lunch and a short rest, we head for base camp with light daypacks. The path rises and falls over glacier moraine, and the final stretch takes you onto the ice itself. Then you are there. 5,364 metres, at the foot of the Khumbu Icefall, standing on the spot where every Everest summit attempt begins. In spring the camp is a city of yellow tents. Expect hugs, photos, and maybe a few tears. We walk back to Gorak Shep for the night.

Here is a secret. You cannot actually see Everest's summit well from base camp, because Nuptse stands in the way. For the classic view, we wake in the dark and climb Kala Patthar, the rocky hill above Gorak Shep, to 5,545 metres, the highest point of your trip. It is cold, it takes about two hours of slow walking by headlamp, and it is worth every step. As the sun rises, the summit of Everest catches the first light, with Nuptse, Lhotse, and the Khumbu Glacier spread out below you. After breakfast we start down, and the descent to Pheriche feels wonderful. Every hour the air gets thicker and your legs get lighter.

A long but happy day of walking back down the valley. Everything you climbed slowly, you now descend at twice the speed. We pass Pangboche and Tengboche again, cross the river, and finish with a final stretch along the hillside into Namche Bazaar. Trekkers often say this day feels like a reward. The villages are familiar, breathing is easier, and your appetite comes roaring back. Namche's bakeries do excellent business with trekkers heading down. You have earned whatever you order.

The last day on the trail is longer than people expect, so we pace it well. The steep drop below Namche tests the knees, then the route rolls up and down along the river, back through Monjo and Phakding, before one final short climb into Lukla. In the evening there is a small celebration with your guide and porters. This is the traditional moment to hand over tips and say a proper thank you to the crew who carried, cooked, and encouraged their way up the mountain with you.

Flights leave Lukla early in the morning, when the mountain weather is calmest, so you will likely be airborne before mid morning. Half an hour later you land in the warm air of Kathmandu, or in Manthali followed by a drive back to the city. At the hotel, the first hot shower in two weeks is a genuinely emotional experience. The rest of the day is yours for sleep, food that is not dal bhat, and slow walks around Thamel with tired legs and a big grin.

This day is your insurance. Lukla flights depend entirely on mountain weather, and delays are common enough that booking your international flight for the same day you leave the mountains is a gamble. If everything ran on time, you now have a free day, and Kathmandu is a fine place to spend it. Take a day trip to the old royal squares of Bhaktapur or Patan, hunt for pashmina, tea, and singing bowls in Thamel, or book a massage and a long lunch. Trust us, you will not be bored.

Time to go home. We pick you up at the hotel about three hours before your international flight and see you off at Tribhuvan Airport. You leave with sore calves, a camera full of mountains, and membership in a fairly small club: people who have stood at the foot of the highest mountain on earth.

When you are ready to start planning, get in touch. We would love to walk with you.