I get this question a lot. We all read the adventure books and have seen the IMAX movie about Mount Everest but most folks are still not sure what it means to go on trek. When at home this type of activity is called backpacking. But, as soon as we fly halfway around the world to the Himalayas to do the same thing, the term we use is trekking. Why go so far away from home and spend so much time and money to join a trekking group? We all, of course, have our own reasons for participating in such a venture, but the one common agreement shared by almost all trekkers is that they want to break out of their day to day routines by walking through an exotic land and experiencing a different culture.