Pumori Climbing Expedition Dispatch

October 10, 2009 – We Made It to Lukla!

We arrived early at the Kathmandu domestic airport which is also a very hectic place. The idea was to have the film crew fly on an earlier flight to Lukla and be ready and organized for when Jamie, Sara, Todd and Scott landed and could get good footage of them landing and leaving the plane. Lukla is located at 2850m/9350ft. and is where our trek begins towards Pumori base camp.

We managed to send the film crew on one of the first flights out with Ang Temba, but the rest of us had to hang around the airport longer for a later flight.

The departure area is completely wild with people everywhere and expedition bags piled high. It’s a chaotic mess. I have no doubt that many foreigners were fearful of never seeing their bags again. They have little need to worry because the expedition staff manages to keep track of all the gear and eventually the bags get to their destination. This may not be on the same flight that you are on, but it is always within a day or two.

Our expedition had many extra bags and most of them were shipped to Lukla ahead of schedule but our team arrived with more bags and they were way above the 15 kilos allowance per person on a typical flight to Lukla. The Twin Otter, the plane that flies to Lukla, is excellent plane but not very big. Therefore the weight limit has to be taken into consideration and many bags have to be flown on later flights.

In general, the flights to Lukla all leave in the morning when the weather is clear. The planes can fly the entire day if Kathmandu and Lukla have good conditions but the weather usually starts to deteriorate in the early afternoon. Many times the planes do leave Kathmandu but have to turn around due to a sudden change of weather in Lukla.

We all made it and by 9:30 AM we were ready to start our short trek to Phakding where we would spend our first night.

Everyone is feeling healthy and strong but, as expected, some of the bags haven’t arrived. We left Ang Temba with some of our other trekking staff behind in Lukla to wait for them. Ang Temba soon joined us and informed us that some bags had arrived but a plane with some of our gear that left Kathmandu was forced to turn around due to a sudden change of weather in Lukla.

The team is in great spirits, everyone is excited and it was nice to see Jamie’s face noticing how much the Khumbu has changed since his last visit. The Khumbu region and the Sherpa people have come a long way. Their business’s are really doing well and now you can find “luxury lodges” with private bathrooms, cell phone coverage and an amazing number of shops and restaurants everywhere you turn.

We settled in Phakding in a great lodge, situated just by the Dudh Kosi river. We all rested, had tea and dinner and went to bed early, some of us still tired from jet lag or the early start from Kathmandu.

Keep in mind that tomorrow will be a big day. We will trek to Namche and enter the Sagarmatha National park where our trekking and expedition permits will be checked. Namche Hill is the first good elevation gain we will experience on this trek and a few members of the team will experience headaches due to the altitude.