Everest Base Camp trekking is very good experience for adventure hikers. Though, it offers a great scenic views of Mt. Everest and other mountain ranges just front of you, it demands highly physical fitness and good acclimatization. As this trek is adventure walking you need to prepare well before setting off for the trek. There are many local and foreign tour and trekking operators who offers a Everest Trekking package. at reasonable cost. Good weather, good support team, good acclimatization can bring you successfully to your long planned, used lots of resources and of course very hard walking to Everest Base Camp. Where you can enjoy a spectacular view of Mt. Everest from Kalapattar. And you will get back to Lukla very delighted; memorizing your great trekking, unfortunately sometimes your happiness turns into frustration and may be very costly as well. So when you are planning for Everest Base Camp Trek you need to keep some days may be at least couple of days on top of your itinerary as a provision, just in case the weather got worse and you got stranded at Lukla.

Everest Base Camp trekking normally starts at Lukla a gate way for Everest region trek. The only the means of transportation from Kathmandu to Lukla is small aircraft. It takes 30 to 35 minutes to Lukla. The best time for Everest Base Camp Trek is September to November in autumn and mid of February to last week of May in spring season, though round the year Everest base camp trekking route remains busy with the trekkers and the tea houses are opened round the year. So this trekking route offers a different experience while trekking in the different season.

The recommended time to trek to Everest Base Camp is normally ideal by the view point of weather but every season quite a few days to a week the weather gets cloudy and misty so this can cause flight cancellation at Lukla. So due to the bad weather the trekkers who come down from Everest Base camp Trek get stranded. So it is recommended to have some spare day before your international flight. If the itinerary is too tight then there is high probability of missing the international flight in case of bad weather and couldn't get back to Kathmandu in time from Lukla.

It might be relevant to see past phenomenon of bad weather for flying back to Kathmandu from Lukla after the Everest Base Camp Trek:

In 2011 and 2012 Oct-Nov, the weather in Lukla suddenly turned into bad and continued to almost a week and many trekkers got stocked there. The trekkers were hoping for good weather but there was only a despair and frustration so they had to walk a week to Jiri to catch the bus for Kathmandu or flying with small helicopter which cost 400$ to 600$ per person.

Possible alternatives to get back to Kathmandu if the bad weather continued at Lukla

Option 1: walking down to Phaplu / Salleri which needs 2 days walk from Lukla. There is Jeep to Kathmandu and it takes 12/14 hrs travelling(the road black topping is on progress, after improvement of road it will be 8/9 hrs travel to Kathmandu). Note: This Road remains closed June to Last week of September

Option 2: if you have got bit longer time then you can walk to Jiri, where from you can take a bus ride to Kathmandu. Jiri is a town where from some trekkers start the trek which is popularly known as Classic Jiri- Everest Base Camp Trekking.. While following the itinerary it takes 7 days to Lukla but in the emergency case walking till the day light takes 4/5 days to Jiri. And there from 7/8 hrs travelling by bus to Katmandu.

Everest Base Camp trekking is beautiful choice to trek but if the weather got bad and you were stocked there and if that caused to miss your international flight that will be painful hence, please plan well, get some alternatives in case of bad weather. Enjoy Everest Base Camp Trekking.