Looking for peace? Some days of the year, Everest can feel like a traffic jam, the northeast road from Namche toward Everest Base Camp is busy with tourists and locals alike.
There is an alternative—northwest to Kongde Ri: equally magnificent, but offering real tranquility and solitude in the Himalayan wilderness. Indeed, once you pass Thame’s famous monastery, the trail to Kongde is essentially private. Used by Khumbu Sherpas before the 1950s, it was renovated by Mountain Lodges of Nepal with approval of EIA. As you walk under canopies of lush vegetation and rhododendron forest, cross bridgeless snowmelt streams thousands of feet up, navigate narrow paths over rocky canyons, and enter meadow after meadow of breathtaking vista, your guide will likely be the only other person around. Wow!
