Forgive my slow start to this blog. I’m still adjusting to the 11 and 3/4 hour time change. Mercifully, my tour operator got me out of the city quickly allowing me to get on the trail. After 29 hours in Kathmandu, I boarded a helicopter and flew to Lukla. Regular fixed wing flights are still the norm, but those flights no longer start from Kathmandu, rather, they involve a 5 or 6 hour drive that starts in the wee hours of the morning. If I may go on a tangent here: there’s a certain allure to just starting where the road ends… my father started his trek to Everest base camp back in 1979 from the end of the road in Jiri. 15 years ago Dede and I took a 10 hour bus ride to the Rolwaling valley… but there’s a lesson to be learned that comes from these experiences: driving on Nepali roads sucks. This year I elected to just fly in a helicopter from Kathmandu.
Lukla (9300’) has the famous runway that ends in a cliff, and is the normal starting and end point of treks and climbs in the Khumbu valley. After handing my 3 duffels to porters (2 duffels go straight to base camp, the third duffel goes with me for the next 2 weeks), we started a relatively easy 8 mile hike that ends at the same altitude that we started. This is walking up the main “road”… well, it is a road, only instead of cars, it’s people, yaks and donkeys. It’s most definitely not wilderness. There are people everywhere.
If you look at the video, you will notice that it’s hazy. Farmers in India burn their fields in the spring, making the air toxic. When I pulled up a weather app in Kathmandu, the weather app starting giving me air quality alarms (AQI = 191). I had experienced this back in 2000 and knew it was coming. I should be climbing above most of the the haze tomorrow, but we’ll see. Today the clouds blended with the haze, and you couldn’t see any of the high peaks. The air smells foul. I hiked with a mask on.
Of course the advantage of being lower down in the valley is that this teahouse has relatively good internet, and power outlets. That should continue for the next three days, and then all bets are off. I’ll enjoy it while I have it.
That’s all I have for tonight. I’m still too jet lagged to even think about the fact that this is the first day of a two month journey… yikes. Time for bed. Goodnight.
Leave a Reply