First steps towards Everest BC

Stuck at the national airport for 30hours, we finally were able to fly to Lukla; the main start of expeditions and trekkings in the Khumbu/Everest region. Starting to feel very unlucky at that time, we now can say that we must have been very happy to actually have been able to fly, finally! All our possible flights were cancelled, some of them while boarding (how demotivating…) because of too much wind, cloudy weather, a nonfunctioning radar system and a broken antenna. Not a good thing if you ask me… ;-) !

 Anyway during a window of less wind, 4 of our team were able to jump into the plane and feel sick for the entire 30min. Gosh, what a wind indeed… Only after landing we could finally uncross our fingers; a terrifying crash of 2 years back at Lukla still fresh in our memory. While writing, I learned that it would have taken another 24h before any other flight would have reached Lukla (this time because of a strike)!

 

Two of our team are staying behind in Lukla to collect the first 1000kg of equipment and materials for the Clean up Expedition (http://extremeeverestexpedition.blogspot.com ), which will be sent somewhere these days from Kathmandu, as well as to  arrange porters or yaks for this horrible load…

Armand and I will already go further up, to get properly acclimatized before reaching the BC in 2 weeks. Not really a good predisposition to be born below sea level when you are interested in these kinds of trips ;-) , although it’s everything but a burden to have to be around here, mandatory! Besides learning to breath again, these weeks will be used to spread the word for the activities of the Climbing for Water Foundation (www.climbingforwater.org / http://climbingforwater.blogspot.com ).

Walking and talking; actually the best publicity!