In the lurching, looming shadow of the world’s highest peak, this remote corner of northern Nepal sees more than its fair share of visitors. In fact, an estimated 40,000 intrepid folk make their way to its perch more than 5,500 meters up in the heart of the Himalayas each year, trekking their way through the snow-mantled glaciers and icefalls of the pine-studded Dudh Kosi valley from Kathmandu. Arriving in Lukla (home to one of the highest airstrips in the world), walkers first hit the tin-shack, altitudinous town of Namche Bazaar, typically brimming with Everest Base Camp-South tour guides eager to lead expeditions towards the famous summit. From there it’s up and up into the Khumbu, where the village of Dingboche gives way to mysterious monasteries and teahouses, massive glacial lakes pop up ad hoc, and the Kosi River drifts between the summits. This is also a chance to spy out the infamous stretches of the great Khumbu Icefall, the otherworldly heights of the Sagarmatha National Park, and the sand covered lakebeds of Gorakshep, not to mention the favoured place from which to launch that daring attempt on Everest itself!