Trekking Guides

Erin and I spoke at length about the merits of hiring a guide for a trek in the Himalayas.  I thought it deserved a separate blog.

We initially hired the guide for the Gokyo trek because we thought it prudent for that trek -- then when we switched to the Annapurna circuit at the last minute we took Nurbu because we had already paid for him.  In hindsight, I think Erin and I agree that for the circuit, while it was great having Nurbu and Karma along (and having learned a lot from them), a guide was far from necessary and that it would have been preferable to do the trek without a guide.  (Many trekkers who've been here before were on their own.)  The problem with a guide is that they have their own agendas, their costly, and you lose your independence.  The loss of independence was a big thing for us.

There are alot of treks where you'd be stupid to not hire a guide (e.g., around Manaslu, Upper Dolpo, Makalu base camp, Upper Mustang, etc.)  For those treks you also need a train of porters to carry food and camping equipment.  It gets really expensive.  All of them are 20 days or more, traveling through remote villages, trails spiderwebbing in every direction.  Like I said you'd be stupid to not hire a guide.  You don't get lost and you help out the local community.

But for the circuit, where it was impossible to get lost, it would have been nice to wake up in the morning and decide not to move on, without having to convince our guide, who had other thoughts, to stay put.