Day 2: Phakding to Namche.
We did the Everest Lodge-to-Lodge hike in the spring of 2025. (Well, technically, we were on the Everest Private Journey, but the itinerary is basically the same) Wilderness Travel did a great job of organizing it!
A good time was had by all!
Our first full day of hiking. The Big Climb!
April 29: Phakding–Namche Bazaar
This was a hard day! No two ways about it. Most trekkers agree that the climb up to Namche is one of the bigger challenges on the EBC, if only because it’s the first big ascent and it happens before anyone is remotely acclimatized.
It didn’t start that badly, though. The morning was bright and sunny, and we got our first views of big mountains, though the snow-capped peaks still hid coyly in the clouds. I felt energetic.
Bala encouraged us to try Nepali porridge at breakfast–tastes like any oatmeal. He also ordered us masala omelets, which are delicious and became our breakfast of choice. We also favor the local yogurt, though Bala worried it would disagree with our stomachs.
The morning walk to Monjo gave us our first experience of “Nepali flat,” which isn’t flat at all, but involves lots of climbing up and down to stay at more or less the same elevation.
Monjo is a nice little town. Its name means “magic woman.” The Mountain Lodge there is beautifully situated. We ate lunch on the lawn, overlooking the sunny field where the lodge grows lots of its own organic veggies.
Then it was time to enter Sagarmatha National Park, where the trekking gets real.
Bala got our permits at the office at the gate, and then we entered the park. There are guards who, theoritically, can search your stuff to make sure you don’t have drones. Maybe because we were with Bala, we were unmolested. Chris had not elected to bring his drone, because his reading of the bureaucratic requirements were so daunting. But not that we know Pankaj, next time we’ll get the drone permit.
I did not feel energetic after lunch. Part of it no doubt was the lunch–several courses midday is not what I normally choose if I can’t take a nap right after–and part of it was surely the jet lag that we were still very much not over. No matter, it was time to walk!
The first part of this stretch is a flat bit along the Dudh Khosi, crossing over to one side and back to the other.
Then we had to climb up to the Hillary Bridge. The path next to the river had been washed out, so some of the walking was on new “trails” carved into the loose dust on the hillside. Not our favorite footing! Bala promised to take us back to Monjo by the higher trail that the donkey trains use.
There are two Hillary Bridges, a high new one and an old lower one. Until recently, those trekkers who found high suspension bridges distastefully scary could cross on the lower bridge, albeit at the cost of about 45 minutes of extra climbing. No longer. Now, that bridge has been taken over by a bungee jumping establishment.
Some lament the touristification of the trail, but I don’t know; the bridge is there, somebody can make money off jumpers, and it’s not as if this facility alone is going to increase numbers. Everyone still has to walk.
The Hillary Bridge is something of a tourist attraction in itself. Lots of trekkers try to claim it briefly to shoot their selfies and videos. I imagine that gets annoying in high season, though we didn’t mind taking a short break to watch the donkey trains and eat some of the “magic candy” Bala produced from his bag.
After the bridge, everyone climbs. And climbs. Every blogger mentions this climb, which goes on for hours. It took us about two hours to reach the next national park checkpoint, and we still weren’t to Namche. Bala kept us at our slow, slow pace. It got harder to breathe.
The trails here are all very well maintained, and on this stretch we saw some of this maintenance in action. A large section of trail was blocked off while workers chiseled and hammered new rocks into place. Porters carried rocks to the work on their backs.
My heart sank when I saw the crowds lined up at the checkpoint just before Namche, but Bala told us to just go sit down and wait. He proceeded to walk right up to the window, where he handled our paperwork in seconds while the polyglot hordes behind him milled about in confusion.
These checkpoints appear from time to time. They’re partly to make sure everyone pays the entrance fee, and I suppose also to make sure everyone who goes in comes back out again. But given the language problems–Germans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Poles, etc. all trying to communicate in English with Nepali staff–there must be plenty of folks who miss them or skip them.
By the last stage of the trail, we were very tired indeed. My right nostril had clogged up, perhaps a cold or perhaps the manifestation of an allergy to donkey dung. We were breathing hard, slow pace uphill notwithstanding.
We finally arrived at the iconic entrance to Namche Bazaar, with the famous line of prayer wheels lined up on the right.
But the Mountain Lodge here is at the very top of town, so there was more climbing still to do. Bala says many of his clients think this is the worst part.
At the lodge, we removed our donkey-dung-dirty shoes, donned our crocs, and sat in the lobby for a cup of tea. It was past 5:30, so clearly happy hour wasn’t in the cards for us this evening. We gave our dinner orders at the front desk and then repaired to our chamber to freshen up.
Bala had gotten the lodge to give us one of the two best rooms, on the end with windows in two walls. He once again counseled us to use the showers right away, before a bigger group checked in and sucked up all the hot water.
Before dinner, we handed over some clothes for washing. This hotel was one of the few places that both offered laundry service and would have enough time to get it done.
Dinner was good, warm and plentiful. Tonight was chili con carne. We went straight to bed afterward and were asleep by 8:30.