Everest Base Camp – Day 4

How the three sixty° Everest Base Camp team *loves*  the Kathmandu Domestic Airport terminal!

Today we turned up at 5:30am, full of optimism that, after a day of sitting around waiting for the skies to allow us to set foot in the Khumbu Valley yesterday, we’d be able to get to work today despite the overcast skies. There would be a way into Lukla!

Our flight was booked for 6:15am, and we duly boarded the tiny Twin Otter in the usual frenetic rush – not a full 3 minutes between the boarding announcement and the bus shuttling us to the aircraft, being strapped in and the propellers being pushed into action!

Not  minute after that, we were at the end of the runway, the pilot’s hand firmly grasping the throttle, ready for take-off. Babs, not enjoying the prospect of another roller-coaster of a flight, had Dire Straits pumping into her ears, her eyes clenched shut, and a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks in sheer fear of what was to come. Her only request was that I wake her up on our final approach into Lukla so that she could be awake at her moment of reckoning.

In the event, Kathmandu Airport closed there and then due to a drop in visability, we turned around and ended up back in the terminal building. An hour later I heard the word ‘Lukla’ vaguely over the tannoy, rushed to the information desk, the whether visibility had improved and we were ready to go again! This time we were sure to make it! I frenetically waved my arms at the team to get them to the gate (time, we have learned, is of the essence in taking advantage of any window of opportunity). We boarded the bus to the plane, but this time it was Lukla that had closed due to deteriorating whether, so we didn’t even make it off the bus. It was back to the terminal for us for some cold toast and boiled eggs, and a lot of pacing up and down.

And we didn’t manage to talk the Nepali Armed Forces into giving us a lift up to Lukla today, either. All rotary blade aircraft were also grounded the whole day.

Tough choices

Tomorrow we’ll be back at the airport at 5:15am, as there’s a rumoured window of opportunity between 6 and 8am (any crumb of optimism is fiercely seized upon in these circumstances, so we’ll be up bright eyed an bushy tailed!). Hopefully we’ll get out by plane, and if not by chopper.

If the weather closes in, this is the last day we can start the EBC trek, as time and altitude will not allow us to leave any later. Our alternative is to have a bus on standby at the airport to take us the 6 hours to the start of the Annapurna Circuit trek, which will be much harder with an extra 2000 vertical metres of ascent to cover in a day less than the Everest Base Camp trek, while reaching an altitude 100 metres higher at the Thorung La pass than EBC.

I’ll let you know how we get on!

Lots of love from the Everest Base Camp trek team,

Matt Brereton-Patel

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