UKC

Hi All. Im going to be hikinh Everest Base Camp in November this year. I’m looking for advice on what boots to take. I’ve seen lots if conflicting advice on yes/no to ankle support with some people advising trail running shoes and others saying full on mountaineering boots. I feel the answer is somewhere in between but hoping someone with experience can give me their opinion please?

i do suffer from rubbish feet (blisters, nails falling off etc) and find lower height, lighter footware less of a pain. All the walking I’ve done in UK and Europe has been with a low height, very breathable light weight approach shoe, but having read that temperatures can get down to -20c in November i believe I’ll need something a bit more insulated. 

Any help is really appreciated. 

Thank you

Approach or trail running will be fine. 

Its cold at night but fine during the day when you'll be walking.

I wore approach shoes. 

For what it's worth, I wore running shoes when I trekked it many years ago in May. (A friend wore sandals for most of it, occasionally with socks).

Whatever you decide, make sure you fully break them in and know them to be comfortable. 

I wore full leather boots, which were complete overkill. The main advantage to them was that I didn't have to worry about stepping through water or accidentally stepping on yak shit (i.e. don't wear sandals). The reason I wore waterproof boots was because of a prior experience in the Annapurna region, which is much lower and wetter, and poo mixed with water runoff is all over the trails.

Off memory I went around Oct/Nov to the Everest area. Most the time I was walking in a t-shirt and shorts- the daytimes were not cold at all if the sun was out.

One lingering memory of walking in the Everest region that the vast majority of walkers carry two poles. And about 90% of them have no clue how to use them, so they are just carrying dead weight. There's nothing on the trail that requires poles, except possibly the one day between Namche and Tengboche(?) which has a bit of a climb out of a gorge where they might help.

Would not recommend the EBC hike though unless it's a tickbox that you have to complete or unless you have very limited time.

Thank you everyone who has replied; will be useful advice/experience in deciding footwear.

Jam: Interesting that you say you wouldn't recommend EBC hike. Is that the day trip to EBC itself or the whole trek? Are there any hikes, viewpoints or destinations in the Everest region that you would recommend?

Thank you.

The EBC route is utterly spectacular once you get past Namche. 

It's just that the route itself is very heavily trafficked... many people probably don't mind this, but I felt that it detracted from the experience somewhat to be constantly passing large groups of people all with the same guided tour group.

The tail end of the route, EBC itself, is a bit of a letdown. You don't get anywhere near the base camp itself, of course- you see what looks to be a giant field of rubble with some specs of colour (tents) in the distance. And you can barely even see the tip of Everest from where you get to. I also found the teahouses at the EBC end to be much rougher and more expensive than elsewhere along the route- the teahouses are owned by a limited number of families, and they know they have a monopoly there.

The standard way of turning EBC into something besides a mild disappointment is that you get woken up in at 4 the morning to climb Kalar Patthar along with everyone else who's been taken up in the the area. They sell it as 'you get to see the sun rise over the Everest', but imo that's a load of bollocks. When I went, we just popped up without the guide on the same afternoon I arrived, so I could sleep in the next morning and avoid the crowds. And at the top, we thought "this is nice I guess, but why would you wake up at 4am to do this?"

I did a couple of side routes that were much less heavily trafficked, on the way to the beginner-friendly Lobuche East and Island Peaks. The side routes were very nice- off memory, it was the last valley before Island Peak past Chukkung that I personally found the most impressive because the valley was huge. What I wanted to do, but didn't have the time to arrange because I did the trip massively last minute, was a circuit by going up Gyoko (a parallel valley system to the west) then going across the Cho La pass into the Everest region. If you Google "three passes Nepal" you should find a route map. This is much more remote route, and the passes are quite high altitude. Takes more time, but a much different experience- I have a good friend to went up that way the following year.

Oh, the usual EBC trek throws in an acclimatisation day at Namche, which has you kind of sitting around for a while checking out the shops or walking up to Khumjong (boring). If you've got the energy for it, I would recommend walking up to a tiny village called Mong, which is halfway to Tengboche, but you take a high path left off the main track and climb a fair bit. The village has great views, and was a much more relaxing place to hang out than Namche.

In my experience it depends a great deal on the weather and one should be prepared for a variety of conditions.
Most of the time trainers are sufficient , but i have also woken up to a metre of fresh snow on the ground and then been very grateful for have mountain boots with me. 

Thank you for the in depth information, really appreciate it.

I had anticipated that EBC itself would always be a bit crappy as you can't really see anything; as you say a bit of a box tick since we'll be up there. Kala Patthar looks nice, though I think I'll do it at sunset rather than sunrise (better to see the orange glow on the mountain at sunset rather rather than the backlit face at sunrise).

I plan on doing quite a few side hikes: Chukkung Ri, Gokyo Lakes & Ri, Ama Dablam Base Camp. I looked at doing the 3 passes but we're not really mountaineers and I've read about objective danger on the Cho La pass. We're also doing it solo and its our first time outside hiking in Europe so have a little trepidation. Depending on how we feel we may do the Renjo La pass from Gokyo over to the Thame Valley; I've heard that's the easiest of the 3 passes.

Thank you for the tip on Mong, I will check it out. I agree that crowds can 'take you out of' the wilderness experience...we do prefer solitude and dislike crowds...but I suppose its a necessary evil to visit such as place.