I totally get that, Apoo. EBC IS a bucket-list item, and it’s worth doing for that alone.

I’d almost suggest that you do that instead of Everest Base Camp. You don’t get the bragging rights, but you will get an interesting story to tell….

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately we cannot afford many leaves from office. So getting a 3 week leave is a job in itself 😉 I would love to cross Renjo La, visit Lungden village or reach till top of Chukhung Ri, but need a lot of time for that… Currently planning for this trip starting from April end.. Shall read through your travelogue thoroughly 🙂

No, I don’t have Nir’s contact number – but Narayan at trekaroundnepal.com can hook you up with him, I’m sure. By in reverse, yes, that’s exactly what I mean – crossing into Gokyo from the EBC direction – but we did it in the direction that you did it in, which is clockwise. You’re right that it’s the best way to do it – if you wanted to extend you could add in another pass, for an even more dramatic hike. I firmly believe that doing EBC on the in-out route could be actively disappointing in May/October – at peak – because even in December there was a degree of traffic on the trail, and I can imagine it being quite unpleasant at peak (you have to stand back to get out of the way of mule and yak trains). We did the trek setting out in late November, and reaching EBC on 12 December, but we took more “rest” and acclimatisation days than some do, as you’ll see if you plough through the whole series of posts. I’m not sure the Cho-La would have been passable if we’d done it much later, because it started to snow when we were heading down – it can be unpredictable. The Cho-La, FYI, is harder than EBC, and Gokyo Ri is higher than Kala Patthar (we also got a LONG way up Machhermo Ri by accident, because someone told us it was 5,000m, which it isn’t).

A few more questions:
1) Do you have Nir’s contact number? If yes, can you share?
2) When you say “Cho-La in reverse”, do you mean crossing it after visiting EBC and while returning to Lukla (so it’s counter clock-wise) OR crossing it first and then visit EBC (clock-wise, Gokyo side first, then EBC)?
3) My previous post has a typo – I am planning to visit EBC via Gokyo side (so it’s clock-wise only), but I mentioned “counter-clock-wise”.
4) Most of the people visiting EBC via Gokyo do it clock-wise only I guess, even though Cho La pass ascend is steeper at this side (from Thaknag side). I also want to do the same, and not the other route around (first EBC, then Cho La, then Gokyo). Reason is that after Kalapatthar & EBC visit, body & mind will obviously want to return ASAP, so I doubt how many team members will try to cross Cho La after visiting EBC.
5) Exactly when have you done this trek – Nov. / May / Oct.?

Hiya, Yes, I’d imagine there will be guides available at the lodges on the other side, and people do do it in two different directions. There aren’t any phone lines up that high, and I don’t think there’s phone reception for mobile, either, so ringing ahead would be almost impossible. Availability of guides depends on when you are doing it — if there’s high demand for guides, you might need to wait a day or join up with another group doing it. If you already have a porter who knows the Cho-La, you might be fine just paying him something extra to act as a porter-guide for that day. We used Nir as our porter-guide, but I think he’s now progressed to the junior guide stage of his career – you could ask Narayan at Trekaroundnepal.com if he can connect you to a porter/porter-guide who’s skilled enough to guide the Cho-La in reverse, and what the fee would be for porter-guiding your planned route (that way you also get support in terms of changing tickets out of Lukla if the flights back up). Doing it in reverse you might well want to consider crampons – no one seems to use them, but they’d come in extremely handy. Theodora

I do not want to engage guides otherwise since EBC is doable just with a porter. But I have experience of crossing glaciers and this is prompting me to take a guide for sure at least in glacier region. So either I need to take a guide all along starting from Lukla, or I can hire one near (before) ChoLa pass, if available.

Therefore could you please confirm if guides will be available from Thagnak or Dzongla lodges who can help to cross ChoLa? And do you have any contact nos. of any lodge/guest house in that area, or may be contact no. of a porter or porter-cum-guide? That will be a great help. Thank you.

My boy is still very proud of managing it. He was only 12, god bless him.