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How to train for the Everest Base Camp trek

If you already walk or exercise most weeks, give yourself 12 weeks: four steady walks or workouts a week, one of them long, plus two strength sessions and a rest day. You are training for 11 days on foot, 3 to 8 hours a day.

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Everest Base Camp trek, training plan: the May 2026 Everest Base Camp group with the High 5 banner, Nepalfrom US$1,419
The photograph shows the May 2026 Everest Base Camp group with the High 5 banner in Solukhumbu District, Koshi Province. 12 weeks of steady walks and strength work, aimed at 11 days on foot and a longest day of 7 to 9 hours.

How fit do you need to be for Everest Base Camp?

Fit enough to walk for most of a day and do it again the next morning. Our standard plan for the Everest Base Camp trek has 11 days on foot, of 3 to 8 hours each, and needs no climbing skills.

A good starting point is the NHS level for adults: at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, and strength exercises on 2 days. It is a general health level, and the plan below builds on it.

If that is already your week, 12 weeks of training is a sound plan: Uphill Athlete’s 12-week trekking plan is written for moderately active people heading for treks such as Everest Base Camp.

For whether a first-timer can do it, see our guide to Everest Base Camp trek difficulty.

Being fit will not stop altitude sickness. The CDC’s travel health guide says: “Training and physical fitness do not affect risk.” Time to adjust is what helps, so our plan has two rest days, at Namche Bazaar on day 3 and Dingboche on day 6.

“From the beginning to the end, everything was professionally managed, including transportation, accommodation and overall coordination. The itinerary was well planned, allowing proper acclimatization and ensuring a safe and enjoyable trekking experience.”

Koteswar R, Everest Base Camp, May 2026, on TripAdvisor

On day 8 you walk along the Khumbu Glacier to Everest Base Camp, over rocky ground like this.

Yellow expedition tents below the icefall and trekkers on the rocky glacier trail, Everest Base Camp, Khumbu Glacier

Everest Base Camp

5,364 m
Everest Base Camp tents on the Khumbu Glacier, posted by High 5 Adventures in May 2026.

Sources: Lonely Planet, Cicerone, NHS (last reviewed 22 May 2024), Uphill Athlete: “Multi-Day Trekking” 12-week plan and CDC Yellow Book 2026: “High-Altitude Travel and Altitude Illness” (last updated 23 April 2025); checked 1 October 2026 and 2 October 2026.

A 12-week Everest Base Camp training plan

Train six days a week for 12 weeks: four steady aerobic sessions, the longest taking about half your weekly time, two strength sessions and one full rest day. This is Uphill Athlete’s pattern for trekking, and it suits people who are already fairly active.

How hard to train
At a low to moderate effort you could keep up for hours. Walking, hiking, stairs and an incline treadmill all count.
Strength
Step-ups, lunges, deadlifts and planks, twice a week. Nearer the trek, do the same moves with your pack and on uneven ground.
Pack weight
Weeks 1 to 4, no extra weight; weeks 5 to 6, add 5% of your body weight; weeks 7 to 8, add 10%; weeks 9 to 10, add 15 to 20%. Never carry more than 20% of your body weight, or more than you will carry on the trek, and if you are new to carrying a pack, stay 10 to 15% below that. Ask us what you will carry each day on the trek, and train with that weight.
Easier weeks
Every third or fourth week, train for about half your usual time.
The last weeks
In the last one to two weeks, train for less time at the same effort.
More time, or less
If you have longer, use it: Uphill Athlete advises 16 to 24 weeks if you can, and calls 8 weeks the bare minimum. Its own 12-week trekking plan starts at just over 4 hours a week and builds to over 7.

Here are the 12 weeks on one line, with the pack weight for each week.

  1. Week 1No extra weight
  2. Week 2No extra weight
  3. Week 3No extra weight
  4. Week 4No extra weightEasier week: about half the time
  5. Week 5Add 5% of body weight
  6. Week 6Add 5% of body weight
  7. Week 7Add 10%
  8. Week 8Add 10%Easier week: about half the time
  9. Week 9Add 15 to 20%, up to what you will carry
  10. Week 10Add 15 to 20%, up to what you will carry
  11. Week 11Taper: less time, same effort
  12. Week 12Taper: less time, same effort

Every week: 4 steady aerobic sessions, one of them long; 2 strength sessions; 1 rest day.

Your 12 weeks at a glance. Pack weights, easier weeks and the taper follow Uphill Athlete’s “Training for Trekking and Hiking” (Steve House, 20 May 2025); we have placed the easier weeks at weeks 4 and 8 and the taper in weeks 11 and 12.

Sources: Uphill Athlete: “Training for Trekking and Hiking” (Steve House, 20 May 2025) and Uphill Athlete: “Multi-Day Trekking” 12-week plan; checked 2 October 2026.

Training for the longest days on the trail

Train for the days you will actually walk. The longest is day 8: 7 to 9 hours from Lobuche to Gorak Shep, then Everest Base Camp and back, and days 8 to 11 all take 6 hours or more.

Uphill Athlete’s advice is to make your training more like the trek as the trek comes closer: similar ground, similar hours and similar kit. On our plan for the Everest Base Camp trek, that means:

  • Long walks on back-to-back days

    Our plan has four long days in a row, so we suggest putting your long walks on back-to-back days in your last weeks.

  • Hills or stairs with your pack

    Day 2 ends with the long climb to Namche Bazaar, 830 m higher than the night before, after 5 to 7 hours on foot.

  • Walking downhill too

    Day 10 is a long descent of 7 to 8 hours from Pheriche to Namche Bazaar, so train going down as well as up.

  • Your boots and daypack on every long walk

    Walk in the boots and daypack you will trek with. Our Everest Base Camp packing list has the rest of the kit.

  • How far you walk

    We have no count of steps. The walk from Lukla to Gorak Shep is about 42 km (26 miles), plus the walks to base camp and Kala Patthar. Our guide to Everest Base Camp trek distance and days has it stage by stage.

This chart shows the hours on foot each day of our standard plan.

  1. Day 13 to 4 hours
  2. Day 25 to 7 hours830 m higher to sleep
  3. Day 33 to 5 hoursRest day: a shorter walk up and back down
  4. Day 45 to 6 hours
  5. Day 55 to 6 hours
  6. Day 64 to 5 hoursRest day: a shorter walk up and back down
  7. Day 75 to 6 hours

  8. Four long days in a row

    1. Day 87 to 9 hoursLongest day
    2. Day 96 to 8 hours
    3. Day 107 to 8 hoursLong descent
    4. Day 116 to 8 hours
Hours on foot each day of our standard 12-day plan, from the sourced trip-facts dossier, checked on 1 October 2026. Day 12, Lukla to Kathmandu, is the flight back.

Sources: Wikivoyage and Uphill Athlete: “Training for Trekking and Hiking” (Steve House, 20 May 2025); checked 1 October 2026 and 2 October 2026.

Training without hills

You can train without mountains. Uphill Athlete names an incline treadmill, a stair machine, a sturdy step-up box, or the stairs of a tall building.

Keep the same weekly pattern and the same pack weights, and move the climbing indoors. Walk down the stairs as well as up, for the long descents.

If you plan to climb a trekking peak such as Island Peak or Mera Peak after the trek, see peak climbing in Nepal.

Source: Uphill Athlete: “Training for Trekking and Hiking” (Steve House, 20 May 2025); checked 2 October 2026.

More guides for the Everest Base Camp trek

See every planning guide

Tell Narbin’s team when you hope to trek, and ask us anything about the days you are training for.

WhatsApp or call +977 985-1180155, email info@high5adventures.com, or see the Everest Base Camp trek first.

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