For the last two days of the walk to Everest Base Camp, you walk beside, and finally onto, one of the highest glaciers on Earth. The Khumbu Glacier begins in the Western Cwm below Mount Everest and Lhotse, tumbles through the Khumbu Icefall, then flows south for about 12 km past Gorak Shep and Lobuche before ending near Thukla. Its rubble-covered surface, grey ice cliffs and turquoise meltwater pools are the landscape of the upper Everest Base Camp Trek.

Khumbu Glacier at a glance

• Length: about 12 km from the foot of the Icefall to the snout, longer if you include the Western Cwm
• Altitude: from about 7,600 m in the Western Cwm to about 4,900 m at the snout near Thukla
• Type: debris-covered valley glacier; most of the ice is hidden under rocks and gravel
• Villages on its moraine: Lobuche and Gorak Shep
• Feeds: the Lobuche Khola, which joins the Imja Khola and the Dudh Koshi
• On our trek: Day 8 (Thukla to Lobuche) and Day 9 (Lobuche to Everest Base Camp)

Where you meet the glacier on the trail

The first sign of the glacier is the steep climb above Thukla to the Thukla Pass memorials: you are climbing its terminal moraine, the huge ridge of rock pushed up at the glacier’s end. Beyond the memorials, the trail follows the lateral moraine on the glacier’s west side up to Lobuche. On Day 9 it continues along the moraine to Gorak Shep, a flat sandy bowl that was once a glacial lake, then crosses rocky ground and finally the glacier itself to reach Base Camp, which sits on moving ice.

Look down from the moraine and you will see the glacier’s surface: a jumble of grey rocks, ice cliffs streaked with dirt, and small green and turquoise lakes. Listen and you may hear rocks sliding and ice cracking as the glacier moves.

A debris-covered glacier

Unlike the white glaciers on postcards, the lower Khumbu is buried under a layer of rock that falls from the surrounding peaks. In places this debris is metres thick and insulates the ice below. Where the debris is thin, the ice melts faster, creating hollows, ice cliffs and ponds. Further up, near Base Camp, the clean white ice and pinnacles called seracs show what lies beneath.

A glacier under pressure

Like most Himalayan glaciers, the Khumbu is thinning as the climate warms. Scientific studies have measured its surface lowering by tens of metres in places since the 1950s, and the lakes on its surface have grown. Expedition operators report Base Camp becoming rockier and more uneven, with meltwater streams flowing through it, and Nepal has discussed moving Base Camp lower in future. Walking beside the Khumbu is a chance to see these changes for yourself, so please carry your rubbish out and use the toilets provided.

Walking safely near the glacier

• Stay on the marked trail; the moraine edges can collapse.
• Do not walk onto the glacier outside the Base Camp trail; crevasses and loose ice are hidden under the rocks.
• Watch for rockfall on the section between Lobuche and Gorak Shep, especially in the afternoon sun.
• Walk slowly. You are above 4,900 m, and breathing is hard work.

Khumbu Glacier on the 14-day Everest Base Camp Trek

You follow the glacier on Day 8, from Thukla to Lobuche, and on Day 9, from Lobuche to Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp, then look down on it from Kala Patthar on Day 10. See the route on our Everest Base Camp trek map.