Everest Three Passes Trek

The hardest teahouse trek in Nepal

That is not marketing. Three passes above 5,300 m, nineteen days, nine nights above 4,500 m, and a short glaciated section that occasionally needs crampons. It is still a lodge trek — you sleep indoors and eat cooked food every night — but within that category nothing else in Nepal asks this much.

The circuit links the two valleys most people choose between. You walk to Everest Base Camp, climb Kala Patthar, cross into the Gokyo valley over the Cho La, climb Gokyo Ri, and come out over the Renjo La into the Bhote Koshi. Almost nothing is walked twice.

Pass	Altitude	Crossed on	The difficulty
Kongma La	5,535 m	Day 9	Longest day, least walked, boulder fields
Cho La	5,420 m	Day 13	A glacier crossing — the technical crux
Renjo La	5,360 m	Day 16	Steepest descent, best view

The Cho La is the part to understand before you book

Most pages call this trek "challenging" and leave it at that. Here is the specific thing.

The eastern approach to the Cho La climbs a steep boulder slope, and the top section crosses a small glacier. It is short — well under an hour — and it is not mountaineering. But it is ice, it holds crevasses in places, and depending on conditions and the time of year it may need microspikes or crampons. Early in the season or after fresh snow, it may need a rope for the group.

We carry traction for everyone on this trek as standard rather than hoping it is bare that week. If conditions on the morning are poor, the pass does not get crossed and we route around it via Namche — which costs two days and is a decision the guide makes on the ground, not one made in an office to protect an itinerary.

The descent on the western side is loose rock and ice over a drop, and it is where people actually fall. Poles, and not rushing.

Kongma La is the one people underestimate

It is the highest of the three at 5,535 m, it is the least trafficked, and it comes first — before you have a fortnight of altitude behind you.

The day from Chhukung is eight to ten hours. There is no lodge, no teahouse and no shelter between the two ends of it, and the ground on the eastern side is an exhausting boulder field with cairns rather than a trail. It finishes by crossing the Khumbu Glacier to reach Lobuche. People who find the Cho La frightening generally find the Kongma La simply long, and it is the one that most often gets abandoned.

We spend two nights at Chhukung before it. That is not padding.

Renjo La, and the best view on the circuit

If the trek has a single moment, it is the top of the Renjo La at 5,360 m looking back east. Everest stands at the head of the valley with the Gokyo lakes laid out below and the Ngozumpa running between them. Gokyo Ri gives you the four-eight-thousander panorama; the Renjo La gives you the composition.

The western descent is the steepest sustained downhill on the trek — a long staircase of stone slabs that is genuinely unpleasant in snow.

Who should not book this

We would rather say this now than at Chhukung.

• If you have never been above 5,000 m, this should not be the trip where you find out how you respond. Do Base Camp or Gokyo first.
• If you have not walked for two consecutive weeks before, the issue is not any single day but day fourteen with ten more to come.
• If your schedule has no slack, a weather day on a pass, or a Lukla closure, breaks a tight return flight.
• If you need to be certain of the full route, book something else. Any of the three passes can close, and roughly one departure in five does not cross all three.

None of that is a reason for a fit, experienced walker to hesitate. It is a reason for the wrong person not to find out the hard way at 5,000 m.

Acclimatisation, which is what 19 days buys

You could compress this to fifteen days. People sell it. What gets cut is always acclimatisation, and on a route with nine nights above 4,500 m that is the one thing worth paying for.

This itinerary carries four acclimatisation nights — Namche, Dingboche, a second night at Chhukung before the Kongma La, and a second at Gokyo. Each one sits immediately before a step up, which is where they do their work.

Night	Sleeping altitude	Why it is there
Namche ×2	3,440 m	The standard first adjustment
Dingboche ×2	4,410 m	Before the push above 4,900 m
Chhukung ×2	4,730 m	Directly before the Kongma La
Gokyo ×2	4,790 m	Before Gokyo Ri and the Renjo La

Permits

• Sagarmatha National Park entry permit
• Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee

Both included, and that is the full list. TIMS is not required in Khumbu. None of the three passes is a restricted area and there is no additional permit for them, whatever you may be quoted elsewhere.

When to go

The window is narrower than for the valley treks, because passes close.

Mid-October to early November is the most reliable: settled weather, the passes usually clear of fresh snow, cold but manageable nights. April to mid-May is the other window, warmer with more afternoon cloud, and with the chance of lingering winter snow on the Cho La in early April.

We do not run this trek in winter — the passes hold snow and the high lodges close — and we do not run it in the monsoon.

What happens if a pass is closed

You still get a very good trek. The fallbacks are worked out in advance: skip the Kongma La and walk the valley to Lobuche; bypass the Cho La by dropping to Namche and climbing the other valley; skip the Renjo La and descend from Gokyo the way the Gokyo trek does.

Every one of those still reaches Base Camp and Gokyo. We would rather set that out now than have the conversation at 4,800 m in bad weather. The Everest region guide covers how the valleys connect.

Where this trek goes

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