70 years after Tensing Norgay and Edmund Hillary summited Mount Everest, climbing the world’s highest peak has changed beyond recognition
- Since the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953, the trip to Everest base camp has shrunk from a months-long trek to a direct flight
- By 1983, only 158 people had reached the mountain’s summit; by 2022, that number had risen to more than 11,000
When Kami Rita set out on his first expedition to Mount Everest in 1992, he had to trek nearly a month just to reach the Everest Base Camp.
Since there were no regular flights back then to Lukla – a small town in northeastern Nepal which today is a popular starting point for climbing the world’s highest peak – his team had to hike for several weeks from Jiri, a town around 190km (118 miles) northeast of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, all the way up to the base camp.
With hardly any hotels or tea shops along the trail, the expedition members had to cook for themselves, using kerosene or sometimes even fodder to prepare their meals.
Expeditions would take up to 90 days, during which participants would spend nearly two months trekking.
“Nowadays [ …] you can now land directly at the base camp and order almost any dish that you can find in a five-star hotel in Kathmandu,” says Kami Rita. “If you have the money, you can get almost everything at the base camp that you can get in Kathmandu – comfortable accommodation, great food, internet service and medical facilities.”
The availability of hotels, lodges, helicopters and tea shops as well as dozens of daily connections to Lukla means that Everest expeditions these days rarely last more than 45 days.
