I trekked to Everest and it was miserable

5 reasons why millennials shouldn’t trek to Everest Base Camp

On October 2015 I took off on the overachiever’s underachieving goal — hiking to Everest Base Camp.

While nowhere near as intense as actually aiming for the tallest peak in the world (8800m), the two week hike itself is no walk in the park. If you’re anything like me, you might have been interested in summiting but after seeing the sobering $100,000+ price tag and summiting rates, gracefully recoiled and chose the base camp option instead.

Since coming back home I’ve had 4 months to think about what surmised during that journey and concluded that, while it may be an incredible journey for some, it is terribly suited for millennials. If so, save yourself the trouble and skip this one for the following reasons:

1) It will hurt

Unlike lazy days in San Francisco where you just can’t be bothered to walk up a hill, Uber and Lyft can’t haul you around this time (I’ve checked).

You’ll be spending 8 hours of your waking day hiking across all sorts of terrain. The whole way you will be sweating, panting, and depending on general sunscreen availability, getting seriously sunburned. Callouses are to be expected and you better tape that puppy up as soon as you feel it.

There’s reduced oxygen at altitude, so be prepared to be out of breath all the time. Even when you’re trying to sleep!

Also, altitude is a five letter B word, unless you’re of the lucky few you’ll get affected with altitude sickness. Some will get a mild headaches. Some will have to be helicopter-evacuated to lower altitudes — a surprising discovery I realized when I started hearing helicopter rotors, multiple times a day.

2) You can’t check social media

Well, that’s not entirely true. Wi-Fi is available, though erratic and weak on the way up. But we all know that that’s sometimes worse than having no Wi-Fi at all.

For two weeks you won’t be liking anyone’s Instagram posts, not posting anything on your Snapchat story, or putting up that witty thought you came up with on Twitter.

You’re going to have to explain to your friends that it’s merely for lack of internet access that you’re not in constant contact, and not because you regard them in the same way you do overripe bananas.

Not to worry, you can always blame it on the high-altitude Himalayan satellite scarcity. Feel free to shake your fists all you want.

3) Everything will be uncomfortable

Squat toilets. Lack of power outlets. Cold mornings. Hard beds. Lack of toilet paper. Freezing showers.

This is not what you signed up for.

You’re used to having everything being within arm’s reach — how you want it, when you want it. You’re used to comfort, and sure you deserve it. You worked really hard to be where you’re at after all.

You’ll wonder how despite your best efforts to not step on lovely packages the Yaks drop along the way, there’ll always be a smidge on your boot and more than one occasion, your leg.

Sure, you’ll have a view of Mt. Everest’s summit right outside your window on most days, but does it really have to be this uncomfortable? You’re already having long, hard days. Why do you have to subject yourself to such torture?

4) You won’t like the food

No chicken nuggets in sight here. If you care about your stomach and not getting sick, you’re going to have to avoid meat for two whole weeks. That’s right — no bacon, no steak, no chicken.

Selection is limited so you’ll be dying to get back to eating real food as soon as you get down, like french fries and pizza.

You’ll instead have to resort to fresh, local produce and authentic Nepali home cooking. Say anything about that tasty curry specials and how they seem to provide all the nutrition you need for the day, it just doesn’t seem to be enough.

5) You’ll have to talk to real people (and yourself)

You’ll be going with a group, but there’ll be other groups along the way. Everybody travels at the same daily pace so you’ll have to actually interact with people at the end of the day. You’ll have to hear various ramblings from interesting people about where they are in life and what their motivation is in doing this trip.

It’s too much deep connection too fast, and we all know how strange that is. I’ll keep human interaction to a minimum, thank you very much

But wait. Slowly but surely you’ll realize that it’s a real us-against-the-world situation on this trip. Friendships are accelerated since you bond over unique experiences, much more than you would in the “real” world.

You’ll start to learn from them, all of them. The older folks will impart knowledge, and the younger ones will infect you with their bright-eyed naiveté.

You’ll encourage each other. Celebrate the day’s wins, and comfort each other for the day’s . Complain to each other about how annoying headaches are, and share similarly brilliant moments like somebody discovering they had Nutell all along. And you’ll swear that they’ve never tasted this good.

As you go along, you’ll find out more about yourself. What makes you tick, what doesn’t. What motivates you and what does exactly the opposite.

You’ll gain new perspective and understand what truly matters to you and what seemed to but doesn’t have to. That no matter how far you’ve come, there’s still so much to go.

Most importantly, you’ll learn that what makes experiences worthwhile are not so much the experiences themselves, but rather how connects people like no other.

Oh who am I kidding. Just sign up for the trek already!