[Seth] Days 1 and 2 — Lukla to Namche Bazar

The part of this trip that I have most been looking forward to is our trek to Everest Base Camp which started on Thursday.  We got up early in the morning to catch a flight to Lukla — Nepal's busiest airport and the gateway to Everest.  Lukla airport has also earned the reputation as one of the world's most dangerous airports.  The reputation is well-deserved as Lukla sits on the side of a Himalaya valley and has a short runway that slopes downhill.  It also has iffy-weather.

When we arrived at the airport we learned that Lukla airport was closed due to weather (and it had been closed the day before as well so the airport was good and crowded). Our flight was the 2d scheduled flight out, and after a couple of hours of waiting we heard the first flight get called and board their plane.  Then 30 minutes later, they deboarded they had all of those passengers get off the plane because it still wasn't safe to fly.

Khatmandu airport

There is another way to get to Lukla — helicopter.  It is expensive (you have to charter the whole flight unless you can find friends) but it can fly to Lukla even when the weather does not allow planes to land.  At about 10 am, we were faced with a decision.  The only limited information we could get was that weather was getting worse at Lukla and that it might stay bad for another day — so we opted for the helicopter.  

The flight was incredible.  As the pilot flew the helicopter along the ridges of the Himalayas foothills he would swoop over ridgelines and down into valleys to avoid the clouds.  After about an hour, we arrived at Lukla and were met by our guide.  After a delicious lunch at The Nest at Lukla (any place that serves rosti with egg is a winner in my book), we started off on our first day to Phakding.  

Lukla airport

The first day is an easy one.  We only had about 5 miles to go and we actually lost 200 m in elevation from Lukla (but it wasn't all downhill, there was plenty of up and down).  It did start to rain half way through the day and since the kids did not have waterproof backpacks, there three pack ended up in mine and Kara's packs (and our guide carried one under his poncho).  We eventually arrived at Phakding at about 4 pm.  We are staying each night at Tea Houses.  These are very basic accommodations — the rooms each had two platforms with a thin cushion.  We put our sleeping bags on top of the cushions.  The bathroom is down the hall and it is a bring your own toilet paper kind of place.  We spent most of our time in the common room where everyone eats, plays cards, and talks.  

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and headed out for Namche Bazar.  This day is considered one of the hardest of the trek.  The first 2/3 of the hike follows the river and has plenty of ups and downs and beautiful suspension bridges.  The weather had cleared up and we were getting our first views of some of the high peaks.  But we were all dreading the steep last part of the hike (about 600 m over a couple of kilometers).

Thamserku 6618 m.

After crossing the river one final time on a very long, high and windy bridge, we started up.

Our guide was great in setting a very slow and metronomic pace.  As we slowly made our way up the hill, we all agreed (except Grace) to be pessimistic in our estimations on how far we had come.  So we were pleasantly suprised when we reached the halfway point, where we caught our first glimpse of Mt Everest off in the distance.  Rejuvenated we made our way up the remaining distance to Namche.

That is Mt Everest over my right shoulder in the distance.  We have a longs ways to go.

Namche is the only real village on the Base Camp Trek and we are staying at the Yak Hotel where we will stay for the next two nights to acclimatize before heading to Tengboche.