Expert / expedition
Extreme-altitude expedition; fixed lines, supplemental oxygen for nearly all
Sustained technical terrain or extreme-altitude expeditions.
40–60 days
Restricted / lottery
Nepal permit alone costs US$15,000 (spring rate since September 2025), plus mandatory liaison and agency arrangements; total expedition costs run US$45,000+.
Kathmandu → Everest Base Camp
Crowds: high · most parties climb guided
The pre-monsoon window (April–May) is the season, with summit pushes in short calm spells in mid-late May. Autumn attempts exist but are rare, colder, and windier.
Via the South Col, Everest is a fixed-line climb through the objectively dangerous Khumbu Icefall, weeks of acclimatisation rotations, and a summit day in the death zone where the margin for error is nearly zero. It demands prior 7,000–8,000 m experience, exceptional fitness, and honest self-assessment far more than rock or ice skill. Crowding on the summit ridge in narrow weather windows is itself a hazard.
The mountaineer's mountain — steeper, colder, and far more serious than Everest.
The most beautiful mountain in the Khumbu — and a genuinely technical prize for experienced alpinists.
The classic first 7,000er — technically moderate slopes where altitude and weather do all the fighting.