World’s most dangerous airport – Lukla
Trains, planes and automobiles… or more accurately buses, planes and helicopters
Not widely known, the hardest part of climbing Everest is just getting out of Kathmandu! Ha. We arrived at the Tenzing Hillary Airport at 5:30 AM, Lukla bound! However, the weather and smoke had different plans. So, the waiting game began. This is not unusual and has happened before on previous trips, so I knew to just sit back, relax and let the universe provide. Mario and I grabbed americanos and cappuccinos for all at the little airport kiosk. 4 coffees later, we danced between waiting area to waiting area, getting on buses to load onto the plane, then turned around back to waiting room, another coffee, sharing Pringles, back on a bus, sit on the tarmac, back to the waiting room…. Until a lower flight path opened up and we changed the plan to HELICOPTER IN (queue the A-Team music)! Kitty got a copter ride!!!
We finally arrived in Lukla around 1 pm, waited for gear, ate, and started hiking at 3 pm. SO LATE, but so grateful we made it! The streets of Lukla were BARE. This village is usually full of brightly colored shops, trekkers/climbers organizing bags, porters looking to join expeditions, children running back and forth and the numerous cows and dogs. Only a few shops were open and the walk was quiet, but our journey had begun
We hiked for a short 4 hours, stepping aside for donkeys and jopkyos. We walked as a tight group, getting to know each other, learning each others stories, comparing climbing stories, slushing through the rain and taking in the beauty of our new home for the next 2 months.
Our teahouse, Sherpa Lodge, is impeccable. Clean, warm, brightly colored and best glass of red wine on the mountain. More bonding, eating and laughing. Casey gave a quick briefing for the next day’s expectations and we dropped off to bed one at a time. A few of us stayed up a bit later enjoying wine, beers and laughs. This is going to be one amazing adventure!
By the way, we decided nicknames are inevitable. Spending a long intense period of time together, you learn a lot about your team; Strengths, weaknesses, hilarious past stories and of course new ones. If you’ve watched Seinfeld, you KNOW you cannot pick your own nickname! These come about organically, and often NOT what you wanted, but Ke Garne (translation: “What to do?”). Our first nickname confirmed:
Jim is “Doppler” – between his super fancy watch that tells us EVERYTHING, and his knowledge of reading NOAA satellite images, he was keeping us updated on weather patterns, altitude, etc! Thanks Doppler!
About the author : Kim
