Island Peak & Everest Base Camp hiking expedition

Planet

As we trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp we enter the Sagarmatha National Park and our park fees are used the upkeep and maintenance of the area. The park has been a Natural World Heritage site since 1979 and is home to a diverse range of wildlife as well as some of the world’s highest peaks.

We enforce a strict Leave no Trace policy on all expeditions. We educate all our clients in how to minimise their negative impact in the environments in which they travel and offer leave no trace training on every expedition. We encourage them to take ownership of their interactions with the environment and consciously make every effort to leave it as found. Whatever is brought with us on expedition from equipment to food, must be taken away again. Tracks and trails are followed as much as possible to avoid any additional disturbance to local ecosystems. All clients are encouraged to give any animals they encounter a wide berth, to avoid unnecessary trauma to the animal and potential danger to themselves.

We provide all water on the expedition trails, which is first filtered with a katadyn filter, boiled or treated with purification tablets. We encourage all clients to bring their own water-bladders and water bottles to be filled each day in an effort to eliminate or minimise the need for the purchase of single use plastic water bottles. The Nepalese government have banned the use of single-use plastic in the Everest region from January 2020 in an effort to minimise the additional waste generated by the many trekkers who visit the valley each year.

People

On all our trips we want to put money directly back into the local communities we visit. We stay in small, locally operated tea-houses along the trail. Giving back directly to the local economy by supporting these small family-run tea-houses. We encourage clients to visit the local markets and to pay market price, where fair and reasonable. All food supplied on the trail is sourced fresh from local markets. We place a strong emphasis on the importance of sourcing locally wherever possible and illustrate the value of this for the local communities to our clients.

Our Earth's Edge team of Sherpas, cooks and porters are employed to lead and assist our expeditions on the ground along with the expedition leader and doctor on the expedition. Our Earth's Edge team of Sherpas are highly experienced and very familiar with the expedition route, local history, cultures and customs of the region and so happy to share that knowledge with us as we trek the route.

We have clear and transparent payment policies in place in Nepal. We pay industry standard wages or above to our Sherpas, porters and cooks throughout the world. We offer advice on tipping to all our clients. We ensure the money is divided fairly between the Earth's Edge team in Nepal. We offer specific tipping advice in keeping with the local guidelines on best practice.

We participate in cultural and social events such as traditional dance and song as we trek and frequent local festivals and celebrations. We encourage our clients to partake in local traditions whenever possible and take time to visit many of the monasteries we pass along the trail.