Everest Three Passes Trek

The Everest Three Passes trek is the complete Khumbu: a 170 km loop that strings together the three high crossings — Renjo La (5,360 m), Cho La (5,420 m) and Kongma La (5,535 m) — and runs the length of Sagarmatha National Park, absorbing both Everest Base Camp and the Gokyo Lakes along the way. It is not a harder version of the Base Camp trek. It is a different order of undertaking, and it is the strongest walking itinerary in Nepal.

Quick answer

Seventeen days of walking from Lukla back to Lukla, plus the Kathmandu flights at both ends and the spare day the Lukla weather will eventually claim — about 20 days door to door. Go in October–November or April–May. Permits are a Sagarmatha National Park entry permit (NPR 3,000) and a Khumbu Rural Municipality fee (NPR 2,000), roughly USD 55 with the TIMS card. You need previous high-altitude experience, real fitness, and — on the passes, in snow — crampons and someone who knows how to use them.

The route, day by day

Day	Stage	Sleep at	Altitude	Hours
1	Lukla → Phakding	Phakding	2,610 m	3–4
2	Phakding → Namche Bazaar	Namche Bazaar	3,440 m	6–7
3	Acclimatization day	Namche Bazaar	3,440 m	—
4	Namche Bazaar → Thame	Thame	3,800 m	5–6
5	Thame → Lungden	Lungden	4,380 m	5–6
6	Lungden → Gokyo	Gokyo	4,790 m	7–9
7	Acclimatization day	Gokyo	4,790 m	—
8	Gokyo → Dragnag	Dragnag	4,700 m	4–5
9	Dragnag → Dzongla	Dzongla	4,830 m	7–9
10	Dzongla → Lobuche	Lobuche	4,940 m	2–3
11	Lobuche → Gorak Shep	Gorak Shep	5,164 m	6–8
12	Gorak Shep → Lobuche	Lobuche	4,940 m	6–7
13	Lobuche → Chhukung	Chhukung	4,730 m	8–10
14	Chhukung → Tengboche	Tengboche	3,860 m	6–7
15	Tengboche → Namche Bazaar	Namche Bazaar	3,440 m	5–6
16	Namche Bazaar → Lukla	Lukla	2,860 m	6–7
17	Spare day	Lukla	2,860 m	—

Read the altitude column rather than the hours. The loop sleeps above 4,700 m for six consecutive nights, tops out at Gorak Shep (5,164 m), and crosses 5,300 m or higher on four separate days. That is the trek's actual difficulty, and it is why the two acclimatization stops early on are not padding.

Why counter-clockwise

The itinerary above goes west first — up the Bhote Kosi to Thame and Lungden, over Renjo La into Gokyo — and this is the order almost every experienced party uses.

The reason is acclimatization. Going west, you climb gradually to 4,380 m at Lungden over five days before crossing your first pass, and Renjo La is the gentlest of the three from that side. Clockwise, you would meet Kongma La — the highest pass, and the one with the most awkward glacial-moraine ground — as your first crossing, on far less acclimatization. The counter-clockwise loop also saves the Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar section for the end, when you are fully acclimatized and can enjoy it.

The three passes

Renjo La, 5,360 m (day 6). The most straightforward of the three and the most beautiful. A steady stone-staircase climb from Lungden, and a summit view straight down the Gokyo valley to Everest, Lhotse and Makalu. Descend to the turquoise lakes.

Cho La, 5,420 m (day 9). The technical one. The eastern approach is steep, holds ice well into the season, and involves a short glacier crossing near the top. Crampons are frequently needed. Start early; the ground softens badly by afternoon.

Kongma La, 5,535 m (day 13). The highest and the longest — eight to ten hours from Lobuche across boulder fields and glacial moraine to Chhukung, with Ama Dablam and Island Peak filling the view. It comes late in the trek, which is both an advantage (you are acclimatized) and a trap (you are tired).

What the loop collects

Four of the world's six highest mountains are visible from the route: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu. So are Nuptse, Pumori, Ama Dablam and Lobuche East. Beyond the summits it takes in the Ngozumpa Glacier — Nepal's longest, crossed on foot on day 8 — the Gokyo Lakes, the Gokyo Ri panorama at 5,357 m, Everest Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier, Kala Patthar at 5,644 m, and Tengboche Monastery on the way down. Thame, on day 4, is Tenzing Norgay's birthplace and holds one of the oldest monasteries in the Khumbu.

Do not underestimate the Lukla flights

The single most common way this trek goes wrong is not a pass. It is the flight. Lukla's runway sits in a corridor that closes for morning cloud without much notice, and a lost day at either end cascades through a 17-day schedule that has no other slack. Day 17 above is a spare day for exactly this reason, and it is the last thing you should cut. Many parties now fly from Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu in the peak seasons, which adds a pre-dawn road transfer.

Should you do this or Base Camp?

If you have not been above 5,000 m before, do Everest Base Camp — twelve to fourteen days, the same mountains, none of the pass exposure. If you have, and you have three clear weeks, the Three Passes is not a marginal upgrade on it; it is the trek Base Camp is a fragment of. Gokyo Lakes on its own is the middle option and the quietest of the three.

Everest vs Annapurna compares the two regions, and our Everest Base Camp tips cover the flight, the teahouses and the altitude rules that apply to all three itineraries.

Practical notes

Teahouses run the whole loop, including Lungden, Dragnag and Dzongla, though the pass-side lodges are small and basic and fill fast in October. Carry a sleeping bag rated well below freezing. Take a guide — this is a route where the recommendation is not a formality, because Cho La and Kongma La are genuinely route-finding problems in fresh snow and both are hours from help.

Permit rules in the Khumbu have changed more than once in recent years, including which cards are issued where. Treat the figures above as the planning baseline and confirm the current requirement before you fly.