Trek Map

Time left at posting: 2111 hours

I thought I would add a map showing our trek to give everyone a better idea of what we are doing.  Pardon the crude attempt at Paintshop, but I wanted to show our route and points of interest.  I highlighted our route in yellow and marked our starting point and destination.  I also noted Everest Base Camp so you can see where we are in relation to it.  Gokyo does offer some very nice views of Everest as long as the weather cooperates, so we should get to see it even though we are skipping Base Camp.  The route we are taking is roughly 70 miles not including any side trips and has an elevation gain of 11,300 vertical feet

 

From our starting point in Jiri, it should  take us somewhere around 6-8 days of walking to arrive at Namche Bazaar.  Once there, we need to take a mandatory rest/acclimatization day, after which we can continue on with our hike to Gokyo.  We will follow the same path back to Lukla (more or less) and fly out for Kathmandu at the end of the trek.  We are hoping to have enough time for some side trips.  I am pretty sure we will take a day hike while acclimating in Namche Bazaar and perhaps have time to play around in Gokyo a bit more than we currently have planned.  We will have to wait and see how our schedule goes and if we can free up some time.

As for the preparations, we are getting ready to send our passports off to get our visas so we don't have to do it after arriving in country.  We don't have a lot of time to waste once we arrive in Kathmandu, so it is best to do what we can before leaving.  I have to get a bunch of passport photo's in the couple of days for our visas, permits and everything else.  I have also gotten my physical and started my vaccinations in preparation for our trip.  Nothing major, just 5 or 6 boosters to make my doctor happy.  My doctor also highly recommended an advanced medical kit to take along with us as well as a few additional items that we will need, so I am putting all that together.  Lots of health related items going with us, but the last thing we need is to get ill while trekking.