Everest Base Camp with Gokyo and Cho La: The 15-Day Combination, Day by Day

If you have 15 days in the Everest region and you want Everest Base Camp, Kala Patthar, the Cho La pass and the Gokyo Lakes in one trip, it can be done, and this is the page that tells you how our version works, how hard it is and who should leave it alone. The short answer is our 15-day Everest Base Camp with Gokyo Lakes trek via Cho La. You walk up to Base Camp first, sleep at Gorak Shep, climb Kala Patthar for sunrise, cross Cho La (5,420 m) from east to west, spend a night at Gokyo (4,790 m), climb Gokyo Ri and walk out through Machhermo and Namche. Our package page grades it Very Strenuous, one level above the plain Base Camp trek, and it costs USD 1,699, 2,799 or 5,299 per person for one traveller depending on tier, which is USD 300 more than the 12-day Base Camp trek at each tier.

I am going to be direct about the hard parts, because the Cho La day is the one that decides whether this trip is right for you, and the crossing is not a walk. Everything about our route below comes from our own live package itinerary.

Which of our 15-day treks is the Gokyo, Cho La and Base Camp combination?

We have three 15-day treks in this part of the Khumbu, and they are easy to confuse, so here is what each one does, read straight from the package itineraries.

Package	Base Camp and Kala Patthar	Gokyo and Gokyo Ri	Cho La	Other passes	Grade on our site
EBC with Gokyo Lakes via Cho La	Yes, first (days 8 and 9)	Yes, after the pass (days 11 and 12)	Yes, day 10, east to west	None	Very Strenuous
EBC with Gokyo Ri	Yes, first (days 7 and 8)	Yes, via Pheriche, Phortse and Machhermo (days 9 to 12)	No	None	Strenuous
Everest Two Passes (Renjo La and Cho La)	Yes, last (days 11 and 12)	Yes, first (days 6 and 7)	Yes, day 9, west to east	Renjo La, day 6	Very Strenuous

So the one this page is about is the first row. If you want Gokyo and Base Camp without a pass, the second row does that. If you want two passes and are happy to do the Gokyo side first, the third row does that and is the Renjo La and Cho La trek, not the one described below. All three rows carry the same price on the live site (USD 1,699, 2,799 and 5,299), so the choice is about what you want to walk, not what you want to pay.

For the general comparison of Base Camp against Gokyo as two separate treks, see our Base Camp versus Gokyo Lakes comparison. This page is only about doing both together via the pass.

What does the day-by-day route look like?

This is the itinerary of the Cho La package. The sleeping height is for each night, and the night at Gorak Shep is 5,164 m. Times are typical and move with your pace and the weather.

Day	Section	Sleep	Sleeping height	Time on the trail
1	Fly to Lukla (2,860 m), trek to Phakding	Phakding	2,610 m	3 hours walking, 20 to 40 minute flight
2	Phakding to Namche Bazaar	Namche	3,440 m	6 hours
3	Rest day in Namche	Namche	3,440 m	Acclimatisation
4	Namche to Tengboche	Tengboche	3,860 m	5 hours
5	Tengboche to Dingboche	Dingboche	4,410 m	5 hours
6	Rest day in Dingboche	Dingboche	4,410 m	Acclimatisation
7	Dingboche to Lobuche	Lobuche	4,940 m	5 hours
8	Lobuche to Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp (5,364 m) and back to Gorak Shep	Gorak Shep	5,164 m	6 to 8 hours
9	Kala Patthar sunrise (5,545 m), then to Dzongla	Dzongla	4,830 m	6 to 8 hours
10	Dzongla over Cho La (5,420 m) to Thangnak	Thangnak	4,700 m	6 to 8 hours
11	Thangnak to Gokyo over the Ngozumpa Glacier	Gokyo	4,790 m	5 hours
12	Gokyo Ri sunrise (5,357 m), down to Machhermo	Machhermo	4,470 m	5 hours
13	Machhermo to Namche	Namche	3,440 m	5 hours
14	Namche to Lukla	Lukla	2,860 m	6 to 7 hours
15	Fly Lukla to Kathmandu	Kathmandu hotel (not included)		20 to 40 minute flight

Two things are worth noticing. First, all the high sleeping happens in a block: Dingboche, Lobuche, Gorak Shep, Dzongla, Thangnak, Gokyo and Machhermo are all at 4,410 m or more, which is eight nights in a row at that height by my count (two of them at Dingboche). Second, there is no spare day anywhere after Dingboche. A day lost to weather means another day has to be dropped, paid for or flown over, and I come back to that below.

The flight to Lukla leaves from Manthali (Ramechhap) in the busy windows, roughly 15 March to 15 May and 25 September to 30 November, which means a pick-up from your hotel between midnight and 2 am and a long drive first. In other months it leaves from Kathmandu. Our Manthali airport guide and domestic flights guide cover both, and our Base Camp day-by-day itinerary has more on the first eight days, which this trek shares.

How hard is the Base Camp and Cho La combination?

Harder than Base Camp alone, and the reason is not one big day but a run of them. Our package page grades it Very Strenuous. The Base Camp trek's own grade on our site is Strenuous, which our grade table describes as long, demanding days at high altitude, often above 4,500 m, with steep climbs, needing good fitness and some previous hiking experience.

These are the sleeping-height changes from our itinerary. The gains are my own calculation, not a figure our package lists.

Night	Sleeping height	Change from the night before
Namche (day 2)	3,440 m	+830 m (from Phakding, which is under 3,000 m)
Tengboche (day 4)	3,860 m	+420 m
Dingboche (day 5)	4,410 m	+550 m
Lobuche (day 7)	4,940 m	+530 m
Gorak Shep (day 8)	5,164 m	+224 m
Dzongla (day 9)	4,830 m	-334 m
Thangnak (day 10)	4,700 m	-130 m
Gokyo (day 11)	4,790 m	+90 m
Machhermo (day 12)	4,470 m	-320 m
Namche (day 13)	3,440 m	-1,030 m

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that above 3,000 m you move your sleeping height by no more than 500 m a day, and that descending even 300 m improves altitude sickness symptoms. Against that, the Namche, Dingboche and Lobuche nights are over the 500 m line (Dingboche only by 50 m on our own figures). Namche and Dingboche are each followed by a rest day, Lobuche is not. The route is built the way the standard Base Camp route is built, with rest days at Namche and Dingboche, and the numbers show why we insist on them. The CDC page also says altitude illness prevalence on Nepal trekking routes can approach 30 percent at higher elevations. Our altitude sickness guide covers symptoms and what we do. Our guides carry an oximeter, which our package page lists in every tier.

The days that are hard in this itinerary are the three in the middle:

• Day 8 is 6 to 8 hours to Base Camp and back to Gorak Shep, sleeping at 5,164 m.
• Day 9 starts in the dark with Kala Patthar (5,545 m, about 380 m above Gorak Shep), and then goes on to Dzongla for another 6 to 8 hours the same day. This is a long day after a short night at the highest bed of the trip.
• Day 10 is the pass, another 6 to 8 hours.

Day 9 and day 10 back to back are why I do not recommend this to anyone whose longest trek is Base Camp itself without having felt good at 5,000 m. Day 11 and day 12 are easier on the body, and Gokyo Ri feels shorter once you are acclimatised. Our itinerary text says it feels easier than Kala Patthar did.

What is the Cho La crossing actually like?

Cho La is at 5,420 m, with Dzongla (4,830 m) on the east side and Thagnak (4,700 m) on the west. From Dzongla that is a climb of about 590 m to the top and a drop of about 720 m on the other side (calculated from those figures). Our itinerary text says you leave Dzongla in the dark, climb through a boulder field marked by cairns, and meet ice and hard snow on the final approach, where it says crampons or careful footwork on hard-packed snow are needed, depending on conditions and the season. It says the descent on the far side is a steep, loose scree gully, and that trekking poles are not optional. It also puts the pre-dawn cold at around minus fifteen or worse, which is the text's estimate and not a measured reading.

The pass can be physically demanding, may need crampons on the slippery glacier, and is snow-covered for nine months of the year with temperatures below freezing for a long time. That is a statement about how long snow lies there, not a promise about your week.

Our Cho La pass page tells a short story that explains why we do not like people crossing alone. On 30 September 2026 one of our guides, crossing with his team, found a trekker travelling without a guide who had fallen on snow just above the lake below the pass and could not walk. His team carried her down in a porter's basket. The trail is short, and on your own there is nobody to see you fall.

On the day, the guide decides. He assesses conditions at first light, and if the weather or the surface is unsafe the pass is not crossed. If you want the villages either side, see our pages on Dzongla and Thangnak.

What happens if Cho La is not safe on your day?

I cannot give you a fixed plan, because it depends on the weather, the date and how many days you have. What I can say is how the money and the route work. Extra nights, extra flights or a helicopter caused by weather are paid by the client, as set out in our Three Passes cost guide. In this itinerary, a closed Cho La means the Gokyo half cannot be reached by the pass on day 10. My own reading, which is not a published plan, is that the alternative is to go back down the Khumbu side and reach Gokyo by the valley trail, which is the route our 15-day Gokyo Ri package uses. That takes more days than the 15 you have booked, so the choice is usually to shorten the Gokyo side, add days at your own cost, or end the trek at Base Camp. Tell me your flight dates before you book and I will tell you honestly what room you have.

Which direction is better, Base Camp first or Gokyo first?

I would not call either better in every case, because they put the hard days in different places. Our Cho La package goes Base Camp first, so you meet Cho La on day 10 after sleeping at 5,164 m and then spend the last four days walking down and across the Gokyo side, with Gokyo Ri as the closing viewpoint. The Two Passes package goes Gokyo first and crosses Renjo La on day 6 and Cho La on day 9, then finishes at Base Camp and Kala Patthar on days 11 and 12, which makes Kala Patthar the final climb and adds a second pass. If you want fewer passes, choose the first. If you want the second pass and are happy to finish at Base Camp, choose the second.

When can you do it, and what about winter?

We can run our high-pass treks all year round, depending on how the weather conditions are. We do not close a route on a calendar date, we look at the weather and pass conditions for your departure, and the guide decides on the day. That is the position I set out in our Three Passes in November and December page, and it applies here too. For Cho La the facts are these. The pass is covered in snow for nine months a year, and at Gorak Shep from December to February most lodges close and the trails are snow-covered. Our own best-time guide and month-by-month weather guide say October is the most reliable and the busiest month, spring has strong views, May is hazier, the monsoon runs from June to mid-September and January and February are very cold with some high lodges shut.

That means the combination is a better fit for October, November, March, April and May than for the coldest months, and a winter date needs a conversation first, not a click on a booking button. I would also not choose it in the monsoon.

What does the trek cost, and what is in each tier?

These figures are the one-person price on our package page, with the group discount depending on group size. The extra cost over the standard Base Camp trek is shown so you can see what the Gokyo half and the pass add.

Trek	Days	Budget	Standard	Luxury
EBC with Gokyo via Cho La	15	USD 1,699	USD 2,799	USD 5,299
Everest Base Camp	12	USD 1,399	USD 2,499	USD 4,999
Difference	3	USD 300	USD 300	USD 300
Gokyo Valley Lakes	10	USD 1,285	USD 2,325	USD 4,332

What the tiers mean on the Cho La package, from our package page:

• Budget: the guide only, no porter, shared rooms, meals and drinks not included, return flights to Lukla (from Kathmandu or Manthali).
• Standard: all three meals on the trek with a fruit once a day, private twin room with an attached bathroom whenever possible, one porter for every two trekkers, guide for up to six trekkers (an assistant guide for seven or more), fixed-wing flights.
• Luxury: private deluxe room with an attached bathroom, all meals with fruit and nuts and unlimited soft drinks, a dedicated porter for each trekker, and a round-trip helicopter between Kathmandu and Lukla.

If you are travelling alone, Luxury still gives you your own porter, Standard has no porter (the guide carries up to 10 kg of your load) and Budget never has one. The porter load is 20 kg shared between two trekkers on Standard. An extra porter is USD 25 a day plus 13 percent VAT and a 3.5 percent bank charge on top. Our solo Base Camp page explains how the single supplement works on the Base Camp trek, and I will confirm the position for this 15-day package when you write to me.

Kathmandu hotels are not included in any trek tier. Permits are, on every tier: Sagarmatha National Park, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee and the TIMS card. The deposit is 10 percent, the balance is paid in Kathmandu in US dollar cash or by card, and a card payment carries 3.5 percent. We do not take Nepali rupees from foreign clients. Plans change? You can reschedule free with at least 72 hours' notice to any date within one year. If you cancel instead, the deposit and anything else you have paid are not refunded. If we cannot run the trip, we refund what was paid less taxes, bank or card charges and any money already spent on permits and flights.

What permits and insurance does it need?

The same three permits as the Base Camp trek, and they add up to NPR 8,000 per person: TIMS NPR 2,000, the Khumbu rural municipality fee NPR 3,000 and Sagarmatha National Park NPR 3,000. The Nepal Tourism Board lists the Sagarmatha park fee at NPR 3,000 for foreigners, and the TIMS fee at NPR 2,000 for non-SAARC visitors. We take care of them, and they are in the price on every tier. Our Base Camp permits page has the fuller explanation. Cho La is a trekking pass, so no mountaineering permit is involved, and our Cho La page says the same.

A licensed guide and agency-issued TIMS card are required on most trekking routes under the Nepal Tourism Board rule from 31 March 2023; the Everest (Khumbu) region does not enforce it locally, but we always trek with a licensed guide. The Nepal Tourism Board page lists the Everest Base Camp trek, the Gokyo trek, the Cho La pass trek and the Three Passes trek among the routes it covers.

Insurance is mandatory and should be bought at home. Our package page says the policy must cover medical costs and emergency helicopter rescue up to 6,000 m, because the trek reaches 5,545 m at Kala Patthar and crosses Cho La, and we ask for a copy before the trek.

What is Gokyo like after the pass?

It is a different place from the Base Camp corridor, and a quieter one. Our itinerary has you cross the Ngozumpa Glacier on day 11 and arrive at Gokyo (4,790 m in our itinerary) on the shore of the third lake. The Gokyo Lakes system has 19 lakes between 4,700 and 5,000 m, was designated a Ramsar site in September 2007, and about 7,000 tourists visit each year, although no year is given for that figure. Ngozumpa is the longest glacier in the Himalayas at 36 km.

Day 12 is Gokyo Ri (5,357 m), and Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu are all visible from the top. The climb takes 2 to 3 hours from the village, and the whole day comes to about 5 hours including the descent to Machhermo. Our Gokyo village page and Gokyo Lakes guide cover the valley, and our Gokyo cost page covers the money. Machhermo is where the trek sleeps on the way down.

Who should not choose this trek?

• Anyone who has not slept above 4,500 m before and walked well at that height. Day 9 and day 10 come straight after the highest bed of the trip.
• Anyone who is uncomfortable on ice, steep scree or exposed ground, or who dislikes wearing crampons or traction. There is a glacier section on Cho La and a loose descent of roughly 700 m.
• Anyone with bad knees, because the descent from the pass is steep and long.
• Anyone with a tight flight home. There is no spare day, and weather days cost money.
• Anyone who wants a first Himalayan trek. The 12-day Base Camp trek or the 10-day Gokyo trek is the better start.
• Anyone planning a deep-winter or monsoon date without talking to us first.
• Anyone who is thinking of crossing Cho La alone or without a guide. Please do not.

If you fit none of those, you are the person this trip was built for. It suits a fit trekker with some previous high-altitude walking who wants Base Camp and the Gokyo Lakes without doing two separate trips.

A note on heights

Heights on the trail vary a little from one source to another. We use 5,545 m for Kala Patthar and 4,790 m for Gokyo, the same figures as on our itineraries, and a GPS on the Kala Patthar ridge can show a higher number. If a time or height differs from what your guide tells you on the trail, believe your guide.

The short version

Our 15-day Everest Base Camp with Gokyo Lakes via Cho La trek takes you to Base Camp and Kala Patthar first, over Cho La (5,420 m) on day 10, and on to Gokyo and Gokyo Ri before the walk out through Machhermo and Namche. It costs USD 1,699, 2,799 or 5,299 per person for one traveller, with permits included in every tier, and it is graded Very Strenuous. The honest cautions are three hard days in a row in the middle, a glacier crossing with a steep loose descent, no spare day for bad weather, and winter dates that need a conversation first. If you want to talk through your dates, message me on WhatsApp on +977 9810351300, or see the 15-day Cho La package, the 15-day Gokyo Ri package without a pass and the Two Passes trek.

Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday, from a family of three generations of family guides. TAAN Member #1586.