Nepal: Time to Get the Show on the Road...Well...Trail

For April 5th

There was no sleeping in the day we were set to head out to the Everest region.  We had to get up early because we were scheduled for an early flight to Lukla, the starting off point for the Everest Base Camp Trek (here after just referred to as EBC).  The airport was so busy.  It turned out that the two days before, no flights had been able to get out to Lukla because of visibility issues.  This meant that everyone from those days was also trying to get to Lukla to get started.  And it also meant that because those people did make it Lukla on the same day as us, there were a lot of more people on the same sections of the trail as us that we would cross paths with over the next 10 days.  Once we got through security and to the waiting room, there was a lot of waiting around.  It was something like 3 hours of waiting before our flight was finally called.  It was our group of four trekkers - Amy, Rene, Louie, and I - and our guide Anil, who were flying to Lukla.  Once there we would meet up with our other guide, Pemba, and our two porters.

Poor sleep + early morning + long wait = 3 sleepy trekkers

Anil told us that if we wanted the best views of the Himalayas as we flew to Lukla, we wanted to be on the left side of the plane.  Unfortunately, it seems like everyone else had been told that too, so I didn’t end up lucky enough to get one.  We flew in a de Havilland Twin Otter, which held 19 plus 2 pilots.  Amy and I looked at the seats in that plane, looked at each other, and said, “I’m pretty sure these seats aren't 16g test rated.  I guess if we crash, at least we’re going in some place amazing like this.”

The flight was certainly not a real enjoyable one, but at least it was short.  It was very turbulent and it was very hot for the first 10-15 minutes or so.  But once we got out of the foothills of the Himalayas and into the mountains it finally cooled down, at least.  As we were getting closer to Lukla we hit the point where we were literally flying between the mountains.  They were taller than we were flying.  Everyone on the plane was super excited, you could just tell.  There was one guy who was trekking up to see his brother who was planning to summit Everest.  There was another man who was returning to EBC for the first time in about 40 years, but in the meantime had summited Kilimanjaro 100 times.  Everyone was just excited.  And as we neared Lukla, the cameras came out and started recording, because the landing in Lukla is unlike almost any other.

Lukla Airport (or actual Tenzing-Hillary Airport) is often considered one of the most dangerous airports in the world.  It is built into the side of a mountain in the town of Lukla.  Basically, if you land short, you hit the side of the mountain; if you land long, you hit the side of the mountain.  The runway is a short 1700 ft long and slopes upward at a 12% grade.  Planes are only able to land via Visible Flight Rules, so that is why it isn’t unusual for flights to be canceled due to weather and visibility.

The landing was thrilling and almost as soon as those wheels touched down, the thrust reversers were out.  When we pulled into the flat tarmac space outside of the area, they hurried everyone out and in the matter of about 5-10 minutes we were trekking…well…after we watched an airplane land at the airport in Lukla.  I’m sure Anil, Pemba, and Louie quickly realized they were traveling with three aviation nerds.  Before we left the town of Lukla, we stopped at a tea house where we did a briefing of the whole trip before we actually set out.

On the outskirts of Lukla you have to get your trekking permit signed off.  Our guides took care of that while we looked around at the beautiful views and rhododendrons (they are everywhere at the lower elevations).  This was also our second encounter with a group that we just called “Costa Rica” because their shirts and hats all said Costa Rica.  Usually what happened was when we saw the group of about 12 from Costa Rica, we’d yell “Costa Rica!!!” and then they’d cheer.  We saw them pretty much every day at some point on the trek or in the village where we were staying.  We first saw them at the airport where they got on the plane we thought might be ours, but ended up not being ours.

Once we got moving I quickly did not become a fan of our trail.  It was very rocky, but in the sense that they had tried to lay out rocks to sort of pave it, but it was uncomfortable under your feet as you walked.  It was a different sort of trail from what we hiked on Kilimanjaro.  But while I wasn’t a fan of the trail, I was a fan of the views.  And that was even with our views partially hidden by clouds.

We quickly learned we were sharing the trail not only with other humans, but also with donkeys, naks (a cross between a cow and a yak), and yaks.  All three were used for transporting goods from village to village.  Essentially we were traveling on the road and the animals were the semi trucks delivering goods to places.  We saw some going up heavily loaded, and others coming down with nothing.

Rhododendrons on the trail.

We had lunch partway between Lukla and our destination for the night, Phakding (9,121 ft).  The menu for the next 10 days was typically some sort of fried noodles, fried rice, dal bhat, momo, and a few soups.  Breakfast usually had things like pancakes, french toast, omletes, chapati, and porridge.  And there was always tea.  We were told we should probably avoid eating meat because it was carried up from lower elevations and might not be exactly fresh.

After lunch we continued on the trail, making our first river crossing.  It would be the first of many suspension bridges that we would cross as we made our way up to EBC.

We arrived in Phakding and were shown to our rooms for the night  at our tea house.  Louie had a room to himself, while Amy, Renee, and I shared a triple.  The tea houses all had beds with mattresses that were probably 3-4 in thick, with pillows, and a warm blanket.  I slept every night in my sleeping bag and was usually warm enough, though as we got higher, I started getting boiled water in my Nalgene bottle, and sticking it in the foot of my sleeping bag for extra warmth.

Our room at our first tea house.

We had supper in the common space.  There we met Valentin (who potentially had a big role in what happened later).  Valentin was either from Sweden or Switzerland…we can’t seem to agree on what he said.  Valentin was not feeling good at all.  His hiking partners had left him in Phakding because he wasn’t feeling well.  He had diarrhea and just didn’t look good overall (when you're hiking on a long trek, you become rather familiar with everyone's bathroom experiences).  After supper at about 7 we headed to bed because we were exhausted.  And pretty much ever after, we headed to bed somewhere between 7 and 8 pm.