Everest Trek 2010

Kanjung Face Trekking

For 2010 we will be returning to Everest but this time we'll be exploring the Tibetan sides of the mountain. In fact, we will be visiting both the East face and the North face of the world's highest peak. The North face is a popular destination as many Everest climbers start their ascent from the North side base camp. If you are familiar with Jon's podcast The Rest of Everest, then no doubt you are familiar with the North side base camp.

The East face of Everest is entirely unfamiliar. In fact, very few people ever journey to the East side and therefor the area is still wild and undocumented. Climbers tend to ignore this side of the mountain because of the extreme difficulty of all East face routes. The East side is also more difficult to get to. The North side base camp can be driven to along a spur road from Tibet's famous Friendship Highway but getting to the East Face of Everest requires several days of trekking. All told, an East Face trek will take about 8 days roundtrip.

Visiting the Tibetan side of Everest is very different from visiting the Nepali side of the mountain. The altitude is extreme on both sides but the acclimatization process is very different on the Tibetan side. For this trip, we will get accustomed to the high altitude by visiting several cities and cultural sites on the Tibetan Plateau. Our starting point once in Tibet will be Lhasa, the famous capital of Tibet and the former home of the Dalai Lama. We will get to explore the amazing Potala Palace as well as many important buddhist temples and sites such as the Jokhang Temple. While it may seem like we'll be doing a lot of sightseeing, we'll actually be getting our bodies accustomed to the altitude because the city of Lhasa is already at 12,000 feet (3500m).

As with the 2009 trek, the focus of this trip with be the photographic workshop taught by Chris and Jon. In order to give every participant the opportunity to make the most of the workshop, we will be using Jeeps while sightseeing/acclimating, then porters and pack animals to carry the majority of our supplies, luggage and personal photography equipment while trekking. In other words, every participant will only be responsible for carrying a small daypack and whatever camera gear will be used on any given day. This way the trek will be filled with opportunities for improving your picture-taking skills, not your endurance under a heavy pack!

To keep the group as close together as possible, we will all be staying at the same hotels and guesthouses throughout the trip. Once we leave for the trek itself, we will be camping. Again, we've worked out all of the logistics with Mountain Tribes and there will only be two people per sleeping tent. We will also have a mobile kitchen and dining tent with two head cooks and five kitchen assistants. Every effort is being made to facilitate the workshop and make the trekking experience as conducive to learning as possible.

The trek will require about a four week commitment (including roundtrip travel from/to home) from each participant. In order to achieve the best weather window for our adventure, everyone involved with the Workshop Trek will need to arrive in Kathmandu, Nepal no later than April 15th. From that date, the following itinerary will be followed (give or take a day):