The numbers behind our guides, in the open. Every profile here is a real GPS track we walked with a watch — free to download, embed and cite. No estimates, no operator brochure figures.
Two treks are measured by us (Everest & Annapurna Base Camp). Two are sourced and clearly marked — indicative until we walk them. How we measure →
Everest vs Annapurna Base Camp, measured
Both walked with a watch, on one set of axes — real distance across, real altitude up. Everest Base Camp climbs higher and runs nearly three times as far; Annapurna Base Camp is shorter but far steeper underfoot.
Everest Base Camp · 157.8 km · +6,144 mAnnapurna Base Camp · 54.72 km · +4,568 m
All four, to the same height scale
Every profile shares the same height axis (700 m–5,500 m), so heights compare honestly. Width is scaled to each trek's own distance — so shape stays readable — with distance labelled below. The two grey ones are sourced, not yet walked by us.
Steepness is cumulative ascent ÷ distance — a like-for-like read of how relentless each climb is underfoot. ABC packs the most climb into the fewest kilometres; EBC and the Circuit trade steepness for altitude and length.
The trek landscape
Every trek plotted by how far it runs (across) and how much it climbs (up) — the trade-offs at a glance. Annapurna Base Camp sits high-and-short (steep); the Circuit high-and-long; Mardi low-and-short. Measured red, sourced grey.
Distance × total ascent · measured (red) + sourced (grey) · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
How steep, really
Metres climbed per kilometre walked — the number that decides how hard a trek feels underfoot, independent of how long or high it is. Annapurna Base Camp is the steepest of the four, more than twice the gradient of Everest Base Camp.
Trek steepness — metres climbed per kilometre
Annapurna Base Camp83 m/km
Mardi Himal65 m/km
Everest Base Camp39 m/km
Annapurna Circuit38 m/km
Cumulative ascent ÷ distance · measured (red) + sourced (grey) · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
This is why ABC breaks legs on the descent while EBC breaks people on altitude — see the full comparison.
The stone steps that break people, measured
The climb most ABC trekkers remember — the stone staircase back up to Chhomrong on the way out — measured off the GPS track, against a mountain you know: Mount Kinabalu's Timpohon-to-Laban-Rata climb.
The stone steps — the climb your legs actually pay
719 m
Kinabalu climb · 1,406 m
51% of Kinabalu's Timpohon → Laban Rata climb — but on the most tired legs of the trip, at up to 32% grade. That's why it's where most people cramp. Measured, Day 6.
ABC day 6, measured · Kinabalu the verified anchor · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
Where the Annapurna trek breaks people
The two points where ABC trekkers come undone, marked on the real measured elevation curve: (1) the mental low on the climb to Deurali, (2) the cramp-fest on the descent back up to Chhomrong. Not folklore — plotted on the GPS track.
Annapurna Base Camp, measured (COROS) · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
Climb high, sleep low — measured
Everest Base Camp is built around acclimatisation: most days you climb well above where you sleep, then drop back to rest. This is the altitude-by-day schedule straight off the GPS track — the route's design, measured, not a claim about the body adapting (one person's track can't show that).
How high you climb vs where you sleep day's high point where you sleep
14.3habove 5,000 m
4nights above 4,000 m
5,160 mhighest you sleep · Gorakshep
The itinerary is built to acclimatise: most days you climb well above where you'll sleep — day three is a pure climb-high-sleep-low rest at Namche — then it ramps steadily to Gorakshep at 5,160 m, higher than the top of the entire Annapurna trek. You log 14.3 hours above 5,000 m across the top. The single night that gains the most sleeping altitude up high is Dingboche to Lobuche, plus 600 m — above the Wilderness Medical Society's ~500 m-per-night ceiling, and where terrain forces a jump like this the guidance is to bracket it with acclimatisation days (see the altitude guide). This is the route's acclimatisation schedule; how your body handles the height is the part one trek can't show.
Everest Base Camp, measured (Garmin, Nov 2025) · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
How high you sleep, vs a peak you know
The one number that really separates the two treks — height. On Everest Base Camp you sleep higher (Gorakshep, 5,160 m) than the highest point of the entire Annapurna Base Camp trek — both measured, both above the summit of Mount Kinabalu.
On Everest Base Camp you sleep as high as 5,160 m — 1024 m above the highest point of the entire Annapurna Base Camp trek, which itself tops out around Kinabalu's 4,095 m summit. If altitude is your unknown, that gap is the whole difference. Heights measured off both GPS files.Measured sleep + high points · Kinabalu the verified anchor · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
The load, day by day
What the totals hide: each day's climb (above the line) and descent (below), on one shared scale. ABC packs big climbs into fewer days then one brutal 2,086 m descent; EBC's bars are lower but relentless. Read straight off the measured day-files.
The shape of the effort, day by day climb descent · metres
Annapurna Base Camp6 days · 54.72 km
Everest Base Camp10 days · 157.8 km
Read it across: ABC's climbs are taller and back-to-back — days three and four each gain over a kilometre — then day five drops 2,086 m in one go, the deepest bar on either chart. EBC's bars are lower but never stop, and its biggest single hits are the descents on the way out. Same lesson from both files: the bar that ends people is below the line.
Per-day climb + descent, measured · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
How the slope sets your pace
Median moving speed in each gradient band, from steep descent to steep climb — derived from the raw 1-second GPS. The shape is the story: pace collapses on the climbs, whoever you are. Read as the shared shape, not a head-to-head verdict.
Your pace is set by the slope, not your fitness Annapurna BC Everest BC
Both files agree on the shape: pace peaks around 3 km/h on gentle descents and collapses toward 1.5 km/h on the steepest climbs — a slope you'd stroll up at home. That's why mountain days take the hours they do. Everest sits lower throughout (thinner air, and a different walker — we don't read a fitness verdict into the gap); the lesson is the curve, not the race. Plan for mountain pace, not your flat-ground speed.
Median pace by gradient, from the raw GPX · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
How long the days really run
Each day's door-to-door elapsed time (first to last GPS fix) vs the actual moving time. The gap is rests, meals and — up high — the slow faff of altitude. Plan your daylight around door-to-door time, not the walking hours an itinerary prints.
Door-to-door vs actually walking moving off your feet
Annapurna Base Camp6 days
12h 20m
26h 29m
37h 11m
47h 43m
58h 04m
66h 38m
Everest Base Camp10 days
14h 40m
29h 53m
37h 47m
410h 04m
59h 18m
69h 25m
711h 26m
813h 01m
910h 11m
109h 10m
0hdoor-to-door hours13h
Everest's days run 9 to 13 hours door-to-door for 5–7 hours of walking — the Base Camp day was 11h26 out for 6h39 moving, the Kala Patthar day 13 hours. Annapurna's are shorter and tighter. The gap isn't slack; up high it's the real cost of altitude, cold and rest — plan your daylight around door-to-door time, not the walking hours an itinerary prints.
Door-to-door vs moving time, measured · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
The heart-rate cost of altitude
One walker (Nashriq, the fittest in the group) at matched easy effort on Everest Base Camp: median heart rate climbs with altitude even though the effort doesn't. This is the floor cost of thin air — one person's measured bpm, not a group average, and not a claim about day-by-day acclimatisation.
The heart-rate cost of thin airNashriq · same easy effort · median bpm · % of age-est. max
Even going downhill
134bpm~72% of maxdescending from 5,100 m Gorakshep → Pheriche
+28
106bpm~57% of maxdescending to Lukla Namche → Lukla
Same near-level steps, and the heart works ~20+ bpm harder above 4,500 m than in the low valley — that's the thin air, not the effort. In percentage terms, an easy walking effort that sits near ~55% of his maximum down low climbs to ~68% up high. And it isn't only the climbs: even descending, the same walker's heart ran 28 bpm faster up high than down low — about 72% of max dropping from 5,100 m, against 57% down to Lukla. Two caveats keep this honest: it's Nashriq alone — the fittest in the group, so read it as the floor, not the average; and the percentages are against an age-estimated maximum (his true max wasn't recorded), so treat them as approximate. Either way it's the cost of altitude, not day-by-day acclimatisation, which a single trek can't show.
One measured walker (Nashriq), Everest Base Camp · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
A heartbeat on the climb
The final climb into Deurali on Annapurna Base Camp, straight off the watch: the ground rising (area) with heart rate (line) overlaid on its own scale. You can watch the pulse spike as the trail kicks up — the measured cost of a climb, second by second.
ElevationHeart rate
Annapurna Base Camp, measured GPS + heart rate · keitreks.com · CC BY 4.0
Download the measured data
The two treks we walked with a watch, as open data — the day-by-day numbers as CSV and the full route as GPX. Free under CC BY 4.0.