Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

April 27, 2011 – Landed in Lukla

We made it in record time from the Yak and Yeti Lobby to Lukla Airstrip!

It is 6:50 am on the 27th of April and I am calling you from the airstrip at Lukla. We had amazing luck today on our departure from the Yak and Yeti hotel and from the Kathmandu domestic airport.

We agreed to meet in the lobby before 5 am. After making sure everybody was checked out, our bus pulled away from the Yak and Yeti parking lot promptly at 5:15 am just as we had planned. By the time we got to the airport the line was very long; a lot of people were flying out today. Ang Temba and the rest of the staff helped us carrying our bags up to security and we had our boarding passes a few minutes later. Woodie noted that it only took us 53 minutes from the Yak and Yeti lobby to being seated in our 16-seat aircraft that was going to take us to Lukla. About 25 minutes later we landed on that spectacular airstrip. We were all really excited and thrilled to see the beautiful mountains around us and to be on our way to Everest Base Camp.

We stepped off the plane and saw a lot of familiar smiling faces that we know well for years: Nima Phuti, one of our guides and Phuri, our Sherpa cook. Everyone is here.

Here we go, we are on the mountains now and we are on our way.