The World's Highest Marathon Starts at 5,356 Metres — Right Where Climbers Rope Up for the Khumbu Icefall

Everest Base Camp is where most people's trek ends. For roughly 250 runners each May, it's the starting line. The Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon — recognised as the highest marathon on Earth — begins at 5,356m, at the edge of the Khumbu Icefall where…

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A marathon that starts where the mountain turns dangerous

Most Everest Base Camp trekkers arrive at 5,356m exhausted, take their photos and turn around. The marathon's start line is the exact same spot — the flat, glacier-ice staging ground where mountaineers check their crampons and harnesses before entering the…

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Three races, three starting lines

The full marathon drops roughly 1,800 vertical metres over its distance. Runners aren't just fighting the thin air of a start line above 5,000m — where a jog is a genuine cardiovascular event even for elite athletes — they're descending a rocky, high-altitude…

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Why it exists

The race was pioneered in 1985 by Jan Turner and Tony Hunt, then relaunched in 2003 as the "Golden Jubilee Everest Marathon" to mark 50 years since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's first ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953. From 2004 it took its current name…

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What this means for trekkers

What this means for you You don't need to be a runner to relate to this. Most Everest Base Camp trekkers cover the Base Camp-to-Namche stretch over three or four gentle, descending days with long tea-house lunches. Marathon runners do the same drop before…

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