How Long Does It Take To Climb Mount Everest?

Trekkers who love to trek must also be interested to know how long the Everest base camp trek is.

Climbing the high mountains such as Everest is not a matter of a day. It requires acclimatizing your body to get used to the thin air, the type of climate at the Everest base camp before you start your journey to Mount Everest. This is why the entire climbing period takes a long time to reach the top.

Read about 45 important things to know before going to EBC

Usually, the expedition to Mount Everest takes around two months. Most of the climbers start their journey from base camp after March and they start arriving at the base camp in late March.

The best time to climb mountain Everest in May.

The base camp is around 5300 meters and it stands at the foot of the icefall which is the major difficulty. Most of the trekkers only go through such unstable and puzzling way of ice twice or thrice but Sherpas can do it around 30 times in a season. Trekkers have now acclimatized to other peaks.

You usually have to spend 4 to 5 days to acclimatizing yourself and when ready you climb halfway to Khumbu ice fall before returning to base camp. After resting for few days you will climb up to the camp 1 and stay there for two nights the return to the base camp.

Everest Base Camp Trek: The Ultimate Guide

You will have to rest at the base camp for 3 to 4 days and then ascend up to the camp 1, stay for a night and continue ascending to camp 2 which is at the base of Lhotse. You will stay there for a couple of nights and descent towards the base camp and rest.

This process of ascending and descending is known as acclimating period which results in making each ascent quicker than previous one. This requires few weeks to make your body adaptive to the environment.

Then you will take rest for three to four day at the base camp and before you start climbing up to the mountain for the summit, a kit is better to go downwards to one of the villages for a couple of days. It helps you to relax and prepare for the big journey. Climbing to the summit is usually during the month of May as the weather during this time is quite predictable.

45 Things to Know Before You Hike to Everest Base Camp

The expedition will then require to stay up at camp 2 for two nights and at camp 3 for one night. The next morning you will climb towards camp 4 where you will be breathing oxygen to acclimatize your body and keep it warm. Usually, trekkers leave camp 4 between 9 pm and midnight so that you can reach the top in the morning and have enough time to come back to camp 4.

Similarly, also at the descending period, you will need to take rest at the different camps to regain your energy instead of heading down continuously.

There is another route to climb Mount Everest that is north ridge which is situated in Tibet. Also, the north ridge is technically more difficult because it includes challenging rocks on the route.

In the expedition on high altitude mountain, the most important and most time consuming is acclimatizing period.

Acclimatizing is important but along with this taking consideration of things like the weather, your own health condition at the moment, obstacles on the mountains including avalanche, properly fixed ropes is also equally important.

And they also determine how long you will have to spend a certain camp or at the base camp.

Climbing the Mount Everest is like pushing yourself towards the risk of death. Many have tried climbing the mountain regardless of all the risks and difficulties out of which some made it to the top and some died on the way.

The time taken to climb Everest is not the same for everyone. It depends upon various risks such as avalanche (mass of snow, rocks falling down the mountain), crevasses (a deep open crack especially in glaciers), and the unpredictable weather of the Mount Everest, rocks fall, and oxygen deprivation.  

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