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

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 10^th 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.