Hi All, I have came through this blog where the writer shared his experience doing trekking without guide or with guide. I am sure this information will be very helpful if anyone is planning to do trek with guide or without guide.
https://www.upeverest.com/blog/trekking/guide-or-no-guide-to-everest-base-camp-trek
Regards
Well, it is his personal opinion. Personally I don't agree. And it is a commercial site of a trekking agency, so hardly a 'neutral' opinion.
You do not need a guide for the trek, nor a porter. It's a matter of personal preference tho.
The proprietor of "UpEverest" agency is a regular "contributor" (and often advertising) to the TA Forum. This may be a similar post.
I also disagree that a guide is "necessary" for a standard EBC trek. It's a personal decision.
I took a look at the blog, and the emphasis is on the "safety" of having a guide, who would protect clients from getting altitude sickness. No mentioning the fact that independent trekkers get LESS AMS than guided group members (German study which can be found on the net).
Another curious snippet from the blog: while he was hiking down from Kala Pattar to Gorak Shep, four helicopters were rescuing trekkers from KP in 30 minutes. The writer just thinks that this proves how dangerous high altitude trekking is, unaware that he is witnessing a huge heli-rescue scam operated by the very same guides he is promoting, with agencies and helicopter operators (who now own also hospitals in Kathmandu). It is quite unbelievable that something like that is now taken as a norm, while I would say that some 30 years ago there maybe were 4 rescues in a year, if even that, and people did not die any more than they do now. Now a $11000 helicopter/hospital rescue is needed to treat mild AMS, back then one paid $5 to a porter to accompany a sick trekker down one village to recover.
An obviously biased and exagerated article to scare people into using a guide when one may not need to.
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