When many Americans think of the trek to Mount Everest Base Camp, they envision a rugged trail through the remote Himalayan wilderness filled with hearty Sherpa climbers and hairy yaks laden with climbing gear.

This vision is mostly accurate, but with a few important tweaks. The yaks often haul cases of craft beer. The Sherpa will stop and tell you about his recent vacation in New York City. And you can order a perfectly poured cappuccino in a quaint village at 12,000 feet.

Globalization has impacted even the most rural parts of Nepal, in more ways than you might have expected. As someone who has lived in Nepal for the last 20 years, I can tell you that it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Starting the Hike in Lukla

Earlier this week I started my journey to Mount Everest Base Camp from Lukla, a trekking outpost in the Himalayan foothills, which is home to the self-described 鈥�world鈥檚 most dangerous airport.鈥� From Lukla, Mount Everest is approximately 40 miles away in trail miles. But the hike there often takes 10 or 11 days to complete. That’s because you gain about 8,200 vertical feet along the way, climbing to 17,598 feet above sea level at Everest Base Camp.

After leaving Lukla, the trail to Base Camp undulates for three hours through rhododendron forests and small villages to a cluster of lodges in Phakding. I hiked alongside three young Nepalis: Sabin, my guide, and Kami Chhiri and Jiban, who are porters. All three are in their late teens to early twenties, working in Nepal鈥檚 trekking industry to support themselves and their families while they finish college.

The hike to and from Everest Base Camp is largely responsible for the thriving tourism industry in this part of Nepal. When I first visited this area 20-or-so years ago, there were far fewer hotels and guiding companies. Today, you can book a room in any number of lodges along the route, ranging from $6 a night for a bare-bones experience all the way up to $100 a night for a luxury stay. I’m staying in $60 hotels, which give me a soft bed and my own shower with hot water.

Every year, thousands of trekkers from around the world sign up for the two-week adventure along the path. They hire guides, porters, cooks, and other helpers. The entry-level pay for these workers is about $17 a day, with a tip at the end of the journey. Along the way, visiting trekkers can expect to pay $7 for a meal, $3 for a coffee, and $5 for a beer in the hotels, lodges, and restaurants along the way. These prices鈥攈igh by Nepal standards鈥攄rive important dollars into the communities.

Sabin, my guide, is thin with a hipster mustache. He carries a small backpack with a pair of psychedelic-colored Crocs sandals strapped to the outside. Chirri and Jiban don鈥檛 have it as easy, as they are carrying my five bags of camera gear and climbing equipment. We generally walk together, joking and chatting in Nepali.

As we walked, we crossed groups of tired trekkers returning to Lukla from Mount Everest鈥攖hey were sunburned and coughing as they slowly walked along the stony trail. I told myself that I’ll look better in two weeks.

On the Trail to Namche Bazaar

We left Phakding at 7 A.M. The trail out of town travels alongside the Dudh Khosi river, milky white from the silt it carries down from the glaciers above. We聽walked past groups of Australians, Chinese, and British trekkers, whose hiking poles all clattered in unison as they walked. We crossed suspension bridges that swayed in the wind, and we waited impatiently behind mule trains laden with gear, hoping to avoid the heavy clouds of dust and pulverized feces they left in their wake.

We walked alongside a group of five young men carrying stacks of half-inch plywood. Most of the stuff going up the valley鈥攆ood, gear, or even building materials鈥攎ust be hauled up by an animal or human. It’s still too expensive to haul most freight via helicopter.

Mules usually carry packaged goods such as toilet paper, rice, and other food. Humans haul fragile cargo: whisky bottles and window panes.聽Every so often, the plywood carriers struck their load with a heavy wooden walking stick. The sound cautioned us to stay the heck out of their way.

Many stretches of the trek to Base Camp don’t feel remote鈥攁fter every 30 minutes of walking the trail bisects another village or town. There are quaint lodges made from stone or plywood sitting adjacent to potato fields. Each lodge sells something that鈥檚 enticing to hikers: mushroom pizza, a bucket of cold Fanta, and even horse cargo services available for around $100.

Three hours after departing Phakding, we crossed the final, and highest, suspension bridge, which is named after Sir Edmund Hillary.

Navigating these bridges requires precise timing鈥攜ou don鈥檛 want to reach the midway point聽and encounter a mule train or heavily laden porter coming the opposite direction. I stopped halfway across the bridge and looked down: below us was an older bridge that鈥檚 been turned into a bungee jumping platform for tourists.

After six hours and 2,700 feet of altitude gain, we arrived in the Sherpa trading village Namche Bazaar. When you arrive at Namche you are greeted by a welcoming sight: a dramatic fountain next to bleach-white Buddhist stupa surrounded by golden prayer wheels.

There’s also a cement bust of the late Pemba Doma Sherpa, a pioneering climber and a Namche local. In 2000 she became the first Nepali woman to climb Mount Everest from the North side.

I became good friends with Pemba Doma Sherpa 20 years ago when I ran a nonprofit for Sherpa porters and climbing guides. In 2006 she traveled to Maine to visit me. At the time, I was rebuilding a crumbling farmhouse, and she was in the United States on a speaking tour. I can still picture Pemba Doma standing on the roof with me, grinning, as she tossed sheets of foam insulation with uncanny precision. Pemba Doma tragically died a year later on 27,940-foot Lhotse when she fell while descending from the summit.

Downtown Namche鈥檚聽Shops and Bars

You’ve probably seen photos of Namche Bazaar perched on the side of the sheer Himalayan hillsides. The town, which is at 11,200 feet, is a collection of homes and lodges, mostly built from perfectly-squared marble stones and topped with green corrugated tin panels.

The city’s roads and walkways are steep, bisected by narrow footpaths, all displaying wares or services for sale. Historically, Namche was the center of commerce and trade for the Sherpa community in the Khumbu Valley. Locals would walk up and over the nearby Nangpa-La pass, which crests聽 at 19,000 feet, to gather salt and other goods from Tibet to barter for fabric and grains from the lowland at a weekly Saturday market.

Twenty five years ago when I first visited Namche, the market was still active, and I remember wandering the open grounds picking between piles of fresh oranges and small hen eggs. A handful of wild-eyed Tibetan men sold knockoff North Face jackets, thick fleece blankets, and Chinese solar power kits. I remember once one of them caught my eye and lifted his shirt to reveal a silver dagger inlaid with turquoise and coral tucked into the waistband of his pants. 鈥淵ou want?鈥� He said quietly to me. 鈥淕ood price.鈥�

Those days are long gone. Thanks to the Mount Everest trekking and climbing industry, Namche has become Nepal’s version of Aspen or Chamonix. It more resembles a resort town than a remote Himalayan trading post.

After settling into a room at the Kala Pathar Lodge, I joined a legion of tired trekkers wandering around the town. At the North Face outlet store鈥攕elling authentic聽gear from the brand鈥攁 few bored trekkers leafed through the down jackets.

Above us at the Hungry Yak Bar鈥攖he establishment markets itself as “The world’s highest live music bar at Namche”鈥攁 local cover band band belted out a passionate version of the song “What’s Up” by American nineties rock group 4 Non Blondes.

I walked past souvenir shops and art galleries, massage parlors and stores selling fake crocs, to a coffee shop called Sherpa Barista. I was halfway through my coffee before I noticed a pulse oximeter, a device used to measure your body鈥檚 adaptation to altitude, dangling from the wall next to me. I put it on my finger but the battery was dead.

But Namche Isn’t Just for Tourists

Next, I wandered into the Cafe Danphe Bar, drawn in by Bon Jovi鈥檚 “Bed of Roses” blaring from two oversized speakers. The place was empty except for three locals huddled around a metal barrel stove watching soccer on TV. The floors and walls of the bar were wrapped in graffitied t-shirts. Each shirt celebrated an “epic trek,” “the best of times,” “100 percent success on the nearby Renjo-la pass.”

After only two days of walking, the scene in Namche felt decadent. But I also noticed that locals far outnumbered foreign trekkers in town. Tourism may have changed the town, but Namche still exists for the locals, too.

The sun dipped behind 20,300-foot Kongde peak on the other side of the valley. Walking back to the hotel, I bumped into Sabin, Kami Chhiri and Jiban. We decided to play snooker in a nearby bar, and snuck through a tight alley between an art gallery showcasing brightly lit paintings of yaks, and a store selling antique masks.

The alley led to a steep flight of metal stairs and into a large, windowless hall with three brightly-lit snooker tables. The air was heavy with cigarette smoke. A handful of locals glided around the tables, expertly sinking one ball after another. Hindi music echoed across the bare concrete walls. We settled in for a game.

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The first leg of travel to reach Mount Everest Base Camp is sometimes the hardest.

That’s what聽国产吃瓜黑料 correspondent Ben Ayers experienced earlier this week. In his latest 国产吃瓜黑料: Dispatches from Everest video, Ayers takes us inside the topsy turvy world of air travel in the Mount Everest region.

Western tourists hoping to hike to the world’s tallest mountain first fly to Kathmandu. But then they must make their way to the town of Lukla in the Himalayan foothills, where the trail to Mount Everest begins. Getting to Lukla during the busy season in the Himalayas can present a challenge.

Tourists can hire a vehicle, but the drive takes upwards of 22 hours to complete. They can also book a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary airport, the self-described world’s most-dangerous airport. But flights from Kathmandu are hard to book during the busy season, and many trekkers must drive from Kathmandu to an airstrip in Rammechap and then board flights to Lukla.

Ayers decided to skip the flight and book a seat in a helicopter. And, as he found out, that mode of transportation came with its own set of challenges, as you will see in his latest video dispatch.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our聽.

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I remember the shaking.

The vibrations were so severe that I could not stand up. After a few seconds, the soil beneath my feet liquified, and the village I was standing in began to spin like one of those sketchy teacup rides at an American county fair.

I also remember the noise. In an instant, the planet itself became a giant subwoofer, reverberating a terrible deep groan.

After a few seconds, the houses in the village began to collapse. Walls sheared off and crumbled, roofs fell into the potato fields, and the air became choked with dust. As the tiny stone wall I crouched behind fell around me, I looked up to see the bed I had slept in just an hour earlier hanging cantilevered into space on a beam, held aloft by a pile of rubble on my pillow.

It was April 25, 2015, and I was in Chaurikharka, Nepal, a small village near the town of Lukla, about 40 miles south of Mount Everest. The earthquake itself lasted for about 50 seconds, which is likely less than the time it鈥檚 taken to read this far into my story. Fifty seconds is also more than long enough to fully panic three or four times.

It鈥檚 been a decade since the Nepal earthquake, a shallow 7.8 magnitude tremor which killed almost 9,000 people, displaced millions more, and reduced huge swaths of the country to rubble. You have probably read about the quake and its impact on Mount Everest. The tremor dislodged a huge chunk of ice that crashed down on Base Camp killing 15 people immediately鈥攕even died in the following days鈥攁nd injuring more than 70.

Ten years later, Nepal鈥檚 infrastructure has been rebuilt, and the scars on Everest have been covered up. But those 50 seconds of rumbling are still clear in my head鈥攁s are the scenes that I witnessed in the days afterward.

This past Friday, April 25, I returned to Chaurikharka for the first time since the earthquake. I went there there to begin my trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp, where I’m reporting on the climbing season for 翱耻迟蝉颈诲别.听But I also wanted to stand in spot where, just a decade earlier, the course of my life shifted.

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It’s no secret that Mount Everest climbers travel with tons of gear.

Guess what鈥攕o do 国产吃瓜黑料 reporters who are headed to Base Camp. In his latest video, our Dispatches from Everest writer Ben Ayers discusses some of the items that he will be using over the next month. Ayers recently departed Kathmandu (elevation: 4,500 feet) for Lukla (elevation: 9,500 feet) to being the 11-day trek to Everest Base Camp (elevation: 17,500 feet). He will spend three weeks in Base Camp, and if the conditions permit, he may ascend to higher camps on the mountain.

Throughout the journey, Ayers is testing a litany of outdoor gear, from parkas made for sub-zero blizzards, to hiking shoes designed for desert treks, to midlayers and shells designed for rain and snow. The trek to Base Camp is an ideal setting for this kind of test. During his journey, Ayers will encounter sub-tropical conditions in the foothills, sub-zero temperatures at Everest, and almost every type of microclimate in between.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our聽.

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