Flight to Lukla & Day 1 of the trek up to Everest Base Camp

Written by steven hall on Monday, April 23, 2007 at 12:50 AM

23 April 2007
Flight to Lukla

DAY 1

View all the pictures from this segment of the journey here.

The next morning I arose at 4:30am to prepare for our 6:20am flight into the Nepali Himalaya beyond. About a 40 minute flight, it passed quickly and showed great views of the craggy mountainous area. The flight was to a high-altitude landing strip in Lukla. It has one runway with a 2000 ft. drop at the end of it. And it's run by the military.

Lukla Airport is a small airport in the Town of Lukla in eastern Nepal. The airport is quite popular as Lukla is the place where most people start their trek to climb Mount Everest. There are frequent daily flights (i.e. no night service) between Lukla and Kathmandu, weather permitting. Although the flying distance is short, it can easily be raining in Lukla and yet the sun shining brightly in Kathmandu or vice versa.

The airport's siren blasts the mountain air to inform personnel of incoming aircraft. The paved tarmac is only accessible to helicopters and small fixed wing short takeoff and land (STOL) aircraft such as Twin Otters. There is about a 700-metre (2,000 ft.) angled drop at the end of the runway to the valley far below. The airport is contained within a chain linked fence and patrolled by the Nepalese army or police around the clock.

Upon arriving Lukla, we, Ramesh and I, hired a porter named Lakba who was entering the 10th grade, to carry equipment. In retrospect I could never carry the load this boy could. Indeed, the Sherpa seem super-human, able to carry loads ranging up to over a 100 pounds up and down the Himalayan trail with relative ease.

The town of Lukla is really a sherpa village that looks kind of like a town in an old western movie. Expeditions were getting last-minute gear and having a 750ml of Everest Beer which is very similar to Belgium's Mared Sous 10. We stayed the night in Lukla in a small lodge -- throughout this journal that word will be used progressively more loosely. I am amazed at how kind the people are; always smiling, very fraternal. Men very openly and casually walk holding hands--just because they're friends, not because they might be gay. It is both surreal and wonderful to be, once again, in a culture so completely different from what I have left in America. Perhaps nothing really illustrated that as much as having to pay our taxes to the Maoist, Communist soldiers that man they area. Everyone pays before the enter the Everest region. At right is my receipt!


That first day we traversed from Lukla (2846m) down the valley wall to Phakding (2652m), crossed the Dudh koshi river (first of many, many damn cr then back up to Monju (2800m). The trail from Lukla began with a 200 meter descent down rocky, turning stair steps that led down to the valley floor. The trek to our lunch-time destination (Phakding) was up and down—a characteristic that held true the entire journey.


After lunch we headed to Monju, up about 550 ft. of terrain. The last 45 ft (altitude, not distance) came with an abrupt rain storm in the normal Nepali fashion: sunny one moment and drenching you the next. The terrain was found to be incredibly rocky and the rain dampened my spirits and made everything slippery. I am now asking myself…“why did I do this….”

“In honesty, I’ll ask myself this many times, I’m sure. I’m glad I’m here,but now knowing what it really is—I doubt I’ll ever do it again.”

Upon reaching Monju, I was shown my room where I literally near-fainted in to a sleep. Exhaustion and altitude began to get to me. I slept for about 4 hours and was awaken by Ramesh for dinner. I began to sense that it would be a very ordered existence, to a degree. My experience was that we would have breakfast between 7 and 8am, lunch between 12pm and 1pm, and dinner at 7pm. I was very quickly realizing that I was woefully not in shape--and that I was simply in over my head. Later in the trek, once, and thankfully, my body had begun to adjust to the workload, Ramesh was somehow able to pull the nose of the "steve-plane" out of a dive. Once we were standing in Everest Base Camp, he opened up and told me he had really thought I might not make it, but that somehow, each day, I grew stronger and stronger. Thank you Jesus.

Arrival to Kathmandu, Nepal

Written by steven hall on Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 12:30 AM

22 April 2007
Kathmandu

All the details of the trip have gone nearly to perfection. I arrived at Tribhaven Airport, got my visa for $30 as described, and had a driver waiting for me with a placard displaying my name.

He took me to the hotel Vashaili, a 3-star hotel, which was quite nice. And it was like $15 a night. As I walked inside the all-marlble lobby from the ornate courtyard, a girl met me at the check-in desk with freshly-squeezed mango juice to drink as I was filling out the paper work. I thought, "I could seriously like this!"

I then walked to Nature Trails, my trekking guide company, and met with the owner, Bishnu, paid the bill and met my guide, Ramesh. In reality, guide means “person who does and knows everything…” I seem to be in good hands. (note: later in the trek, he actually saved my life...details later)

I then walked Thamel, which the NW quadrant of Kathmandu. By contrast to the rest of the city, Thamel has kind of a “Disney” feeling in that there are literally 1000’s of little cafes and shops covering a maze of small streets. It is relatively clean and charming to walk as you avoid cars, buses, and hand-pulled rickshaw. Think of all those videos you've probably seen on TV from little crowded streets in Hong Kong--just like that only more vegetation crammed in, slightly more rustic, and charming. You can feel people making money and deals in the area... Picture at right is from the roof-top garden restaurant I had supper in: a huge plate of pasta, rice, chicken and veggies, two bottled (ca. 1980) pepsi-colas, and some bread...$.90.

Transcendental grade for Nepali exchange rate: 7/7 chakras... with $500 you could buy the whole country.

Arriving in Dehli, India with no visa...

Written by steven hall on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at 12:09 AM

21 April 2007

After a 22-hour flight I arrived in the New Delhi, India. As I disembarked the plane I was slightly nervous about the whole visa thing, having been thinking about it for the last couple of hours of the flight. It was possible that they could send me back to Chicago.

I approached customs and, upon them seeing I had no visa, was told to “please wait for transit personnel by the chairs”. After a few minutes’ wait a nice young girl came by speaking pretty good English. She took my information and escorted me to the transit area.

Interesting Note: Though thought of for software, technology and phone support, I was surprised by the lack of technology here. She had carbon copies and simply wrote the info in to a large book.

Later….

The layover in Delhi is 13+ hours and I am confined to the transit area like Tom Hanks in the movie "Transit"... I have explored the transit area and found duty free shops (mostly tobacco and liquor), a Subway sandwich shop, and 2 posh lounges associated with hotels, one of which I slipped into and am writing from now—the ITC Sheraton lounge. Apparently on the last flight my phone was open and the battery wore down completely, nearly. So I have befriended the manager of this establishment and he is charging my phone in his office! Thank God!

During my repose in the Sheraton lounge I learned the game "Cricket", as the world championships were on the entire time and I watched game after game.... After that I slept on a couch for a while only to get busted by the morning crew for not really belonging to the members list for the lounge... *duh*. So I had to pay $45 to get out of trouble. Totally worth it.

At the gate waiting for my flight to Nepal, and being now daylight, I noticed that the New Delhi-The cityscape looks much like I imagined it, only the smog here makes LA look like Colorado…it's *unbelieveable*.

7477 mile to Delhi from Chicago

Written by steven hall on Friday, April 20, 2007 at 10:14 AM

20 April 2007
on the plane to New Dehli.

7477 mile to Delhi from Chicago. The trip’s adventures started early as I was nearly denied a boarding pass because my layover in India was for overnight. They think I’ll need a visa. So, as it stands now they think I’ll be okay, but I’ll have to stay in the transit area. I have no idea what that means, but I'm down with whatever needs to happen to make this trip work.

Flight information:

Flight altitude: 34,000 ft.
Airspeed: 599 mph

The plane is packed and we are well-served. About 3 hours in to the flight the mass of families on board the craft are beginning to get a little restless and kids are starting to walk about a bit. That's to be expected. The thing that really made an impact on the flight--well, 2 things--the technology jump for entertainment on intercontinental flights, and the seriously down-sized seats. Oy--watch tons of stuff on the movie channel but my back was killing me after a while.

Itinerary for Mt. Everest Trip

Written by steven hall on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 2:36 PM

From April 20 - May 8, 2007 I went to Nepal for an Everest Base Camp trek. I will be entering new blogs from my trip journal, but back-dating them so they are in the correct chronology in the archive.

Photojournal of the trip can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenmhall/collections/72157600049423773/

April 20 - May 8, 2007

After years of not climbing and getting to the mountains, I'm gettin' back to it!

April 20: Depart Dallas, TX (DFW)
April 21: In Flight
April 22: Arrive Tribhuvan Airport (KTM) Jet Airways flight 262 from DEL 1:15PM
April 23 (Day 01): Kathmandu / Lukla (a 45 minute flight), commence trek to Phakding (2652 m).
Day 02: Phakding / Namche Bazaar (3446 m).
Day 03: Rest at Namche Bazaar.
Day 04: Namche Bazaar / Tengboche (3867 m).
Day 05: Tengboche / Orsu (4000 m).
Day 06: Orsu / Dingboche(4252 m).
Day 07: Dingboche/ Lobuche (4930 m).
Day 08: Lobuche / Gorak Shep / Everest Base Camp.
Day 09: Gorak Shep / Kalapather (5545 m) / Digbosche (4343 m).
Day 10: Digbosche / Namche Bazaar.
Day 11: Namche / Phakding
Day 12: Namche / Phakding.
Day 13: Phakding / Lukla.
May 06 (Day 14): Fly back to Kathmandu.
May 07: Free Day
May 08: Depart Tribhuvan Airport (KTM) Jet Airways flight 261 from DEL 2:15PM