Everest Q&A

If you’re a regular hiker, then it’s not very hard. Most of the days are not very long, maybe 4-6 hours hikes. And there are some rest days in between.

Of course, the altitude plays a role. You get out of breath much quicker than at the sea level, but you just need to take your time and take care of yourself. Lower your pace (it’s not a race) and drink plenty of water… trust me, it helps a lot! Be ready for headaches, as these are quite common on altitude. And expect to be tired. That’s pretty much unavoidable but it’s not too bad. You go with a group, and you all feel the same. And even if you happen to have an exceptionally strong group, don’t worry, there are loads of others going in parallel who probably feel the same.

Just remember to communicate to your guide if you’re not feeling well. Even if it’s just a headache, which as I mentioned, is very common. They will keep an eye on you. In most cases these are just minor altitude symptoms but leave the judgement to the pros.

You may also lose some appetite. Not only because of the altitude, but also because the higher you go, the lower the food quality. Not to mention it’s all just one same menu everywhere you go, so you may get tired of it. So, bring some of your favourite snacks to make sure you get the energy during the food crisis.

The route itself is not technical at all. It’s just a simple hike all the way, maybe with a bit of a scree towards the end but that’s about it. It’s reasonably safe if you stick to the path.

It really depends on the weather. During my ascent, it was about -20 C at the summit and with low wind it meant that it was actually very warm… for Everest!

In fact, when coming down from the top, while still in the death zone, I was boiling in the down suite. I’m generally a very warm climber, so I was desperate to take my suit off. As you probably saw on my Reel video on Instagram, the side zip ventilations were not enough. I literally needed to take the whole top off and let it hang off me. And I was still boiling, as half of my body was still in the suit. It was a struggle.

Having said that, Everest can be very cold. The clouds can come in in seconds, and you go from boiling hot to freezing cold in a blink of an eye. I’ve seen this happen number of times.

So was I just very lucky with a weather during my summit push? Partially yes, as there was not much wind. But partially it’s part of the strategy. In order to go for the summit push you need a weather window, and that means a reasonably good weather with low winds. You wait until that happens. And sometimes you wait for weeks.

I didn’t know for sure if I’ve got what it takes to climb Everest. I’ve never climbed an 8000m peak and the unknown was the biggest obstacle of my believes. But I did know I can get quite high. I climbed other tough mountains and I often had enough power to go higher so I felt that I had a chance for Everest too.

Being from Poland means I took Everest and the preps very serious. Here is why… Poland came late to the game of mountaineering. All the highest mountains were already conquered when we showed up. So Poles decided to conquer them in winter. And that’s what we became known for. Out of 14 8000m peaks 10 were summited first time in winter by Poles.

Winter ascents are much more dangerous and entail far more accidents. So when our mountaineers were going for winter ascents we, as nation, may have heard more tragic stories in our lives than others. And that built our fear and awareness of how dangerous high mountains can be.

And so I took it very serious too. I prepared well physically, mentally, and my gear was spot on. It took me months, or even years when counting everything that was required for Everest. And I don’t think i would have done it any other way.

I’m in the process of writing a book, explaining exactly how I did it, step by step, from the very begging to the very end. Hopefully it can inspire many of you and get you to the top of the world too.

You can get some hormones that stop your period altogether (like contraceptive pill). Though this is not recommended because it thickens your blood and on high altitude it can be lethal. I wouldn’t go with that.

So the only choice you really have is to deal with it as normal. Use an old school pad or a tampon. What you choose is really up to you, but remember, you need to change your tampon every 4-6 hours to avoid any toxic shock syndrome, while the pad you can wear for hours and you’re pretty safe. If you climb between the camps for hours (my summit push was 22.5 hours) you have no chance to change your tampon, unless you’re happy to do it while being strapped to the rope with 20+ Sherpas and climbers. I guess not?!? 🤔 Then pad is your only choice. Get the biggest you can find and use it for climbing days, while for rest days and nights you can go with a normal size.

Plus, if you fiddle with the tampons, remember that you can’t wash your hands, so again pads may be better. But of course, pads come with their own cons… the smell and discomfort, but you have to suck it up. Use wet wipes whenever you can to wash yourself, scented ones work better for the smell. I found the non scented making it worse, so I avoid them.

And if you get your period unexpectedly (which often happens on altitude!) and you’re not prepared, be creative… use a sock, T-shirt, whatever you’ve got, until you bump into another girl who may help you out. Or just always come prepared! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ll answer that from physical point of view (will cover mental aspect in a separate question).

Khumbu icefall, it’s a steep part of glacier between Everest Base Camp and the camp above, Camp 1. It’s the most dangerous, and physically demanding part. It’s like a giant maze made of huge blocks of ice ranging from the size of a car to a 10 storey building. These blocks are constantly shifting and collapsing which makes it so dangerous.

A specially designated team of Sherpas sets a route, putting ropes and ladders along the way to make it safer. As the blocs shift the route needs to be changed every day.

A lot of these giant ice blocks are hanging above you and you know it’s a matter of hours that they’ll collapse but you hope it’s not going to happen the minute you pass it. So you have to be quick. You don’t want to hang around the icefall too long.

It normally takes between 6-10 hours for a climber to pass it, depending on the conditions. Sometimes the route can be bad, constantly going up and down big crevasses, sometimes the crevasses are small enough to put a ladder across and you save time and energy going up and down or around it.

Another hard part is Lhotse face, a steep slope between camp 2, and higher Camp 4 (with camp 3 in the middle). Though, to be honest, I didn’t find it as hard as I was told it to be. It’s also dangerous though. If you unclip from a rope and slip, you have effectively no chances to stop yourself from falling.

Hillary steps are also quite tricky. It’s a travers of slippery rocks about 40 mins from the summit. But that’s a short stretch, maybe 20-50 meters of rocks, and only one rock particularly hard.

We’ve all heard of long queues on Everest, but how bad is it really and why is it so? In 2019 the queues were bad. You may have seen the famous photo snapped by @nimsdai 🤙 That year there was just one day weather window, so everyone rushed to the summit at the same time. One day in the whole year! Imagine! That’s rare though. You usually get a couple of days so the climbers spread out and is not as bad as you think. Look at the first video, that’s about 45 mins from the summit, and that’s pretty much the queue I got. And look at the guy in red lower behind me… if he was to turn back and walk towards me, chances are it would take him 5 mins to reach me. That’s because the pace is so slow on this altitude. He would have to stop 3 times to catch a breath, so if you have people spread out every 2m, a lot of them won’t feel like they’re in the queue because they can’t catch the person ahead because of the slow pace. It just looks like a queue but is it really?

The second video is different. Here we’re genuinely queueing, but let’s think why that is… when you climb Everest you often go as a group, that’s a safe option, because you can support and help each other as a team. However, going through the icefall you’ll face a lot of vertical walls. Let’s say it takes 2 mins to pass a wall like that. If there are 20 of you in the group, the last person will climb it after 40 mins. So queueing in this case is inevitable, because it’s still considered a safer option to go as a group. And even if only one expedition was allowed on the mountain (there are closer to 40) you would still face some queuing.

I was 29 when I did Inca Trail, a 4 day trek through Peruvian Andes. We reached an altitude of 4200m which sparked my curiosity for higher altitude and the rest was history. I’m 37 now so it took many years to build the confidence and experience required for Everest.

The average age of people who climbed Everest is close to 40. And it’s not because you’re at your prime at that age in terms of mountaineering. It’s because climbing Everest is extremely expensive (will cover that in a separate post).

And yes, when you’re older you’re smarter, more switched on, more focused, and your endurance may be better (all of which can help reaching the top safely) but younger people have proven to climb well too. It’s just that most people in their 20s or early 30s don’t have enough finances to do that, hence why you see less of them.

And at what age is it too late to climb Everest? I don’t think there is a limit. You can climb it way past your 40s. This is Mario @mario.villagran56 on the photo here. He’s 66 and he made it! 💪 My guide from previous year was guiding Everest into his 60s, and the older person to have climbed Everest was 80… he climbed it before at the age of 70 and 75. So if this is your life goal you probably have more time than you think.

All of this that you see… climbing gear, high altitude boots, summit down suit, backpacks, sleeping bags, mats, trekking equipment, electronics, medications… the list goes on forever! Of course bare in mind that I’ve been climbing for years and a lot of that I already had but a lot needed upgrading too, so it was a massive logistic process to get it in top quality (because I would not recommend anything other than top quality for Everest, it’s too serious of a mountain to risk it).

In case you’re aiming for EBC only, there is a huge overlap of what to take, so you’ve come to the right place. I’m in a process of writing a comprehensive eBook, with plenty of links of each product, and detailed explanation of what works and what doesn’t. When I started my mountain climbing journey I was fed up with lists that didn’t explain much. I found them very confusing. So I’m here to help. The eBook is coming out in September, so stay tuned.

The truth is Everest took over my life! It’s not a complaint, it’s just a reality of it. But I made a conscious decision to go ahead with that. As a result I didn’t have time for other life commitments, no kinds, no boyfriend (unless he was into outdoors and could do things with me), and no traditional socialising.

I worked out every lunch break, and every evening, so that’s what most people can do too, and then I utilised my weekends to do long distance training, so usually a long bike ride and a long hike, 10+ hours each day. Again, that’s something you can do too, just need to commit.

On top of that I used commuting as a training too. I would fill up my backpack with 30+ litres of water and would stand on a train for an hour. It’s only standing, but imagine doing that 2h every day for months (1h each way). It trains your back and you’re capable to carry a lot when you need to.

Then let’s look at socialising… I could not go to a pub or a cafe to meet friends because I simply had no time. But instead, I was organising hikes and bike rides and friends were coming along. So I never felt like I missed out.

Of course my house was always messy, gear was scattered all over, there were unpacked bags laying in each corner of my place for months after coming back from adventures, and my garden became a jungle, but who cares, it was temporary.

There are companies that offer specific training, but it costs and is not flexible to my work schedule. So instead, I’ve relied on my own prior experience from previous mountains (like Denali which is also very physically demanding). Ultimately I needed to train for cardio, strength and endurance. I then got access to the paid schedule and it turned out that mine was very similar.

I did not jump straight into the schedule below. I worked my way up, gradually increasing the intercity week by week. The key was to listen to my body and have a rest when I feel like I really needed it.

Typical week would be:

Monday: was my rest day
Tuesday: 10km run flat at lunchtime, 2h cross trainer in the evening (easy pace)
Wednesday: 10km hill run at lunch, 1h core exercise/weights in the evening, 1h cross trainer
Thursday: 20km bike ride, 1h HIIT training, 1h cross training
Friday: 10km interval run, 1h stair master, 1h cross trainer
Saturday: 30km hike with 12-20kg backpack
Sunday: 150km bike ride

Yes, I did. At least three times. This was one of them.

As you see on the second video we were climbing up through a typical ice wall. There are plenty of them on your way up to camp 1. But this one was different… it had a massive serac hanging over it. Trust me, the angle on the video doesn’t even remotely show how much of an overhang this was. The huge block of ice was precariously leaning above us.

Going up I was totally conscious of it, but not paralysed by it. Going down was a bit different.  That’s what the first video shows. I’m at the top, with a grey backpack, getting ready to start the descent while Mario, in red jacket, is already rappelling/abseiling.  

Suddenly, that big serac above us makes a loud cracking noise. Luckily it didn’t collapse, but if it did, Mario and the rest of the climbers below would have no chance. And very likely we would also get hit at the top.

The moment we heard the noise, we all unclipped from the rope and took a few steps back to try to avoid the potential fall of the ice block. That honestly was the scariest part of climbing Everest to me. For a few seconds my mind froze. I couldn’t stop thinking “how the hell will I go down cause there is no chance I’m going this way!”. But I quickly got to my senses… there was no other way down I just had to be as fast as I could and get the hell out of there.

It depends on what your priority is. Mine has always been safety, so I always wanted to go with a company that could give me that. There are a few things to consider when choosing the expedition.

Do you already know a guide who works on Everest? Perhaps you’ve climbed with him before on less serious mountains and you felt safe with them? Or maybe you know someone who climbed the mountain, and you trust their opinion? Speak to them, get all the pros and cons, speak to others, do your research. Every company is different in one way or another, so you need to see what works best for you.

The first time I climbed Everest I chose @MountainTrip because of my previous experience with them. I was happy with their safety measures, and I knew that they won’t take unnecessary risk. This was my first time on the mountain so I wanted to be as safe as I could. On the flip side, it meant if things were not ideal (e.g., bad weather) we wouldn’t take the chase. And that’s exactly what happened and unfortunately that year I did not summit. Having said that, I enjoyed @MountainTrip and would go with them again.

The next year I wanted to change the company to see a different style of leadership and operation. I chose @EliteExped with @NimsDai as our leader. Again, the safety was my prime reason for choosing them, and not the absurd suggestion by some that it was because of the ‘fame’. It’s nothing to do with that, at least not for me. These guys have one of the best Sherpa team on the world. Four of them were first ever K2 winter summiteers. Climbers all over the world were trying to achieve that for yours but didn’t managed. These guys did! They’re absolute machines.

I knew if $hit hits the fun, I’ve got the biggest chance of surviving with these guys. They’re always at the frontline. Look at the recent sad events on Manaslu. They got heavily involved to help other teams. And that’s what I needed. I didn’t need babysitting anymore. I knew my $hit, as I’ve learnt a lot from other expedition. Now I just needed that extra protection from strong Sherpa team if things go bad.

Plus, things were more relaxed here, which worked well for me. I’m a very anxious person by nature so relaxed atmosphere worked in my favour.

Last thing to consider is the cost. Unfortunately, cheaper expedition usually means less Sherpa support, and less oxygen bottles. If things go well, that’s probably not a problem, but if things go bad, that may be a life-or-death difference. So, I knew there is no chance I would be saving on that.

I don’t think there is a perfect progress, but there is a path that is recommended. Working your way up from smaller, easier mountains, to higher and more difficult ones is advised. It will allow you to build your skills and experience important to have when climbing more difficult mountains. For example, you wouldn’t go from Ben Nevis to Everest straight away.

A lot of expedition would check if you completed other mountains before letting you join Everest. If you’re on the mission to do the Seven Summits it’s worth starting from the easiest one, Kilimanjaro. It’s a good start but it’s also quite challenging if you’re at the first stage of your mountain climbing journey. So don’t take it for granted. It’s very high, long, and you can get altitude sickness if you don’t look after yourself. But at the same time you learn a lot about yourself too… it’s definitely a good experience to have.

If you’re going through the Seven Summits, a lot of companies would want you to do Aconcagua and Denali first before heading for Everest. Aconcagua, because it’s very high so it tests how your body performs on altitude, and Denali, because it’s incredibly difficult physically, so it tests your endurance (in fact the summit push on Denali was for me harder than on Everest). Plus, it’s incredibly cold, which will teach you how to deal with low temperatures. I wouldn’t class these two mountains as an entry level though, so read up what’s best to do before climbing these.

One thing to remember though, the Seven Summit mountains are usually more costly than other mountains of similar difficulty level. So, if you’re not interested in Seven Summits, just Everest itself, find mountains equivalent to these to save the cost.

You may think that but that certainly was not the case for me. Reaching any big summit has always been my biggest motivation in life. And I felt exactly that even after reaching something I may never be able to top again.

After Everest I felt even more motivated than ever before. I felt like Everest was just the tip of the iceberg what I could do. I came back full of ideas and plans, not all related to mountains. Everest showed me that everything is possible if you put your mind to it. So no, I didn’t feel flat or depressed. I felt driven and hungry for more. I just need to figure it all out how to do it given the very limited resources we all have.

I truly believe that we should all follow our dreams, those little ones as well as the big ones. They will make us feel better, not worse. Following dreams is the best mental cure. Not only that it distracts you from negative thoughts but also, it gives you purpose.

It varies enormously from one company to another. The minimum a company can charge is $35,000 (that’s what I’m told as of 2022) and the maximum can go easily above $250,000. That covers a permit of ($11,000), food/accommodation during trekking/climb (two months in total), Sherpa support, kitchen support, oxygen, transport from Kathmandu, porters.

On top of that you need to add insurance ($500-$5,000 or even more if you want), flights, oversize luggage charges (can be even $500),  hotels before and after the climb, helicopter rides (very expensive and are used more often than you think but can be avoided), gear ($5,000 easily), spending money during the trip (shower, laundry, treats, internet – very expensive), tips (they are compulsory and very between $1,500-$5,000).

All in all, you’re looking at a minimum of $45,000 but personally I don’t know anyone who spent that little. Most of the climbers spend between $70,000-$100,000.

The prime difference between cheaper and more expensive company is Sherpa support (both in terms of the numbers and experience) and oxygen bottles (since bringing oxygen to high camps is a huge undertaking). In an ideal scenario (i.e., good weather and no accidents) that difference will not matter, but this is Everest! Things are hardly ever ideal. It can be life or death situation so having extra oxygen or support can actually save your life. People die on Everest every year. Therefore, I personally would not try to go with a budget company. I would rather wait a few years longer to save more money and have the extra support that may be needed.  

And of course, more expensive companies can come with other perks, like better EBC set up, or nicer accommodation during trekking, but generally the difference would only be noticeable up to EBC. Above that, it’s all really a survival mode so most companies operate within the same standards of “living”.

I won’t quote what I paid since the prices can vary from one year to the next even within the same organisers. Companies can progress, change their setup, improve their reputation by prior year success or lose it too. Best thing to do is to get in touch with different companies and see what they can offer.

The true answer is, the more the better, but that will mean different things to different people, so let’s try to quantify it.

Most companies will have a minimum that you would need to meet to join the expedition.

First, they would require a prove that you can cope on high altitude, so for example you had climbed around 7000m peak, like Aconcagua, with no major issues.

Then you would have to prove that you can climb a very physically demanding mountain, like for example Denali.

Of course, to climb these they will have their own requirements too, so in reality you need plenty of smaller mountains before that.

And finally, you would have to prove that you know how to use climbing gear, how to belay, abseil, use crampons, ice axe, and you are likely to be asked for your fitness level.