Three passes, three glacier crossings, and 5,535 m at Kongma La’s high point — this circuit is the Khumbu’s classic teahouse trek turned up a full grade. We took 18 days against the stated 16–20, and the extra time went almost entirely to acclimatization, not distance.
Gokyo Ri at dawn, looking across at four of the world’s fourteen 8,000ers from one ridge, is the payoff everyone photographs. The harder, less-photographed day is Cho La — a short glacier crossing that needs microspikes and is not optional if you are doing all three passes rather than the standard Everest Base Camp trek.
On altitude
Do not compress the acclimatization days to save a week. Two people in our group turned back at Dingboche with real symptoms, not just headaches — the kind serious enough that continuing to Kongma La was not a reasonable choice. The schedule has rest days built in for a reason; use all of them.