Outline Schedule

The weather can play havoc with any plans, we have plenty of reserve days set aside to try and cover this but have to be very flexible.  We were ahead of schedule last year until the weather grounded us at base camp for two weeks and patience can be severely tested, especially as you need to save all your strength for the summit attempt.   


In 69 days there will only be around 26 "active" days.  The body doesn't recover very well above 5000m and begins to feed off itself so those rest and acclimatisation days are very improtant.  There are lots of tough long days, even before you factor in the weather, and on summit day alone you can burn around 15,000 calories and it is difficult to ingest more than a couple of thousand up there.

The outline of our itinerary is below (and now added to the route page):

Date	Day
2 Apr	1	Depart Heathrow
3 Apr	2	Arrive Kathmandu
4 Apr	3	Fly to Lukla (2800m); trek to Phakding (2640m)
5 Apr	4	Trek to Namche Bazaar (3446m)
6 Apr	5	Acclimatisation day
7 Apr	6	Trek to Pangboche (4000m)
8 Apr	7	Trek to Dingboche (4500m)
9 Apr	8	Trek to Ama Dablam base camp (4750m)
10 Apr	9	Trek to Namche Bazaar (3446m)
11 Apr	10	Trek to Lukla
12 Apr	11	Fly to Kathmandu
13 Apr	12	Drive to Chinese border; overnight in Tibet
14 Apr	13	Drive to Everest Base Camp (BC; 5200m)
15 Apr	14	Rest day
16 Apr	15	Acclimatisation walk up Frozen River (5700m)
17 Apr	16	Rest day
18 Apr	17	Acclimatisation Ridge walk (6000m)
19 Apr	18	Rest day
20 Apr	19	Move to Intermediate Camp (5700m)
21 Apr	20	Move to Advanced Base Camp (ABC; 6400m)
22-24 Apr	21-23	Rest and acclimatisation
25 Apr	24	Climb North Col (7000m)
26-29 Apr	25-28	North Col reserve weather day
30 Apr	29	Return to BC
1-4 May	29-33	Rest days
5 May	34	Return to ABC
6 May	35	Climb North Col and overnight at North Col
7 May	36	Move to 7500m; overnight at North Col
8 May	37	Return to ABC
9 May	38	Return to BC
10-13 May	39-42	Rest days
14 May	43	Return to ABC
15 May	44	Rest day
16 May	45	Move to North Col
17 May	46	Move to 7800m
18 May	47	Move to 8300m
19 May	48	Summit day
20-30 May	49-59	Reserve Summit days
31 May	60	Descent
1 Jun	61	Clear mountain
2 Jun	62	Clear mountain
3 Jun	63	Clear ABC
4 Jun	64	Return to BC
5 Jun	65	Clear BC
6 Jun	66	Drive to Nylam
7 Jun	67	Drive to Kathmandu
8 Jun	68	Kathmandu
9 Jun	69	Return to London