Sagarmatha (Mount Everest)

The trail to Everest begins in Lukla, descends to the Dudh Kosi river gorge, then climbs relentlessly through pine and rhododendron forest into the hostile altitude of the Khumbu valley. Every step above 3,000 m demands more from the body, and the air thins perceptibly as the villages grow smaller and the tea houses more sparse. Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa capital at 3,440 m, is the last place of relative comfort before the mountain asserts itself, its markets stacked with mountaineering gear and acclimatisation supplements for the trek ahead.

From Kala Patthar at 5,644 m the summit of Everest reveals itself at last, a cream-coloured wedge of rock and ice projected against an impossibly deep blue sky. The scale is disorienting: what looks from base camp like a modest snow dome is, at true elevation, an 8,849-metre wall of rock and ice the height of twenty-four consecutive Big Ben clock faces stacked on top of each other. At this altitude the wind never stops, and the cold bites exposed skin in seconds, but the sight of the world's roof forces a suspension of disbelief that no photograph has ever fully captured.

Everest Base Camp itself sits on the Khumbu Glacier at 5,364 m, a scatter of brightly coloured tents that appears from a distance like a refugee settlement on a grey ice plain. The ice pyramids of the glacier shift slowly around the camp, and the silence of the place is broken only by the wind and the occasional radio crackle from a climbing team checking in with their base. The atmosphere mixes extreme scientific observation with something closer to religious pilgrimage, and the debris of decades of expeditions — oxygen bottles, food tins, flag ribbons — is slowly being cleaned up by dedicated crews.

The mountain dominates every view in the Khumbu, but the landscape is also Sherpa country, shaped by generations of mountain people whose villages, Buddhist prayer walls and mani stone carvings line the main trails. The Sherpa relationship with Everest is not purely spiritual or economic but something more complex, rooted in the land itself — their ancestors settled these valleys centuries ago, drawn by the same peaks that now attract trekkers from across the world. For the trekker walking slowly through the valley, the mountain is always there, ahead, behind, above, a constant presence that makes every other peak feel like a footnote. And the evidence of climate change is increasingly visible here too: the glaciers are retreating measurably, a process documented by the scientists based at EVK2, making the Khumbu not just a place of cultural and spiritual significance but also a living laboratory of environmental transformation.

At 8,849 metres, Everest is the highest point on Earth — a geological fact that no amount of repetition diminishes.

The approach through the Khumbu exposes visitors to some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on the planet.

The trekking route to base camp requires no technical climbing skills and is achievable by any reasonably fit person with proper acclimatisation.