Lukla airport

A couple quick items, this airport is named the most dangerous airport in the world.  That isn't because it is deadly in particular, it is because it is a crazy airport to land and take off from.  The runway is 530m long, 30m wide and slopes at 12%.  It has a cliff edge on the approach and a cliff on the back edge.  Tenzing-Hillary Airport



There is no instrumentation on the runway, it is visual approach only.  So needless to say it gets closed a lot due to weather.

We opted for helicopter flights into and out of Lukla which are much more reliable weather wise and also a lot safer I think.



This is a video I took of our Helicopter approach and landing at Lukla.

About two weeks before we arrive, there was a plane crash at the airport.  The wreckage from that crash was still sitting there.



I took some video of a Plane taking off from Lukla, its interesting to watch this process.

When we were leaving the tea house to head to the landing pad, some young girls at the tea house wanted to be our porters.  So we "hired" four of them so they could show the world that girls can do everything the boys can do.

photos (sorry not in this post)

I know everyone wants to see more photos, I'm working on organizing them.  I took over 2,000 photos on the trip so it's no small task to pick and choose and get them posted somewhere.  I've stuck a few in the new posts I just made today to tease you.

I'm going to be working over the next couple weeks on some slide shows and things like that so once those are completed, I'll upload and share them with everyone as well.

Thanks everyone for following my epic journey, it has been absolutely amazing.  I'm a changed person because of this trip, for the better (except for my lingering Khumbu cough).

Mike

Daily Maps

Overall route - >110 miles, >50,000 feet of vertical rise

Day 1 - Lukla -> Monjo - 9.24 miles, 3,841 vertical feet

Day 2 - Monjo -> Namche Bazaar - 5.32 miles, 5,319 vertical feet

Day 3 - Namche area, Everest View Hotel, 4.54 miles, 2,088 vertical feet

Day 4 - Namche -> Dole, 7.52 miles, 5,656 vertical feet

Day 5 - Dole -> Machermo, 3.47 miles, 1,920 vertical feet

Day 6 - Machermo -> Gokyo, 4.66 miles, 2,080 vertical feet

Day 7 - Gokyo Ri - 2.66 miles, 2,053 vertical feet

Day 8 - Gokyo -> Dragnag, 2.72 miles, 404 vertical feet



Day 9 - Dragnag -> Phortse, 8.74 miles, 3,144 vertical feet



Day 10 - Phortse -> Dingboche, 9.4 miles, 5,769 vertical feet



Day 11 - Dingboche -> Loboche, 5.46 miles, 2,638 vertical feet



Day 12 - Loboche -> Gorakshep, 2.94 miles, 1,129 vertical feet



Day 12 - Kalapatther, 2.55 miles, 1,549 vertical feet



Day 13 - Gorakshep -> EBC, 2.77 miles, 864 vertical feet



Day 13 - EBC -> Loboche, 4.99 miles, 504 vertical feet



Day 14 - Loboche -> Panboche, 10.7 miles, 1,663 vertical feet



Day 15 - Panboche -> Namche, 7.5 miles, 4,042 vertical feet



Day 16 - Namche - Phakding, 7 miles, 3,430 vertical feet

Day 17 - Phakding -> Lukla, 5.34 miles, 2,527 vertical feet

Everest Base Camp

While one could argue that the main destination for this adventure is EBC, I would counter that EBC was just a piece of the trip.  It was so neat to finally arrive here more to say that I've been there, had lunch there hung out and wandered about a bit.

Due to our schedule adjustment from the Cho La pass weather, we did not spend the night at EBC.  Our original schedule had us spending two nights here which I think would have been awesome.  This location accommodates approximately 1,000 people during the peak climbing season (which is while we where there).  Once spring season is over in June, the camp is broken down and almost completely vacated until the next spring.



EBC is stretched along the west and north side of the moraine on top of the Khumbu glacier.  It is village of tents setup for all of the different expeditions in the area which includes medical, scientific and other support groups in addition to summit teams.



We arrived at the SNT camp area close to lunch time and while that was being prepared for us, we hung out, wander around, etc.  People living here for several months get used to the routine and living conditions.



For me, seeing the notorious Khmubu Ice Fall up close was the most interesting thing.

It is hard to get a sense of the scale of this ice fall in the photos but there are people crossing it behind me.



I've got several zoomed in photos of the ice fall showing people crossing it.  Yes, those little black dots are people with backpacks climbing down over seracs and crevasses using ropes, fixed ladders and crampons.

They climb up through the ice fall in the middle of the night when it is most solid.  As the sun comes up and warms it during the day, the glacier moves a lot more.  Those blocks of ice called seracs are the size of small buildings and they fall over.  The route has to be constantly maintained and fixed because of this.

From EBC, there are avalanches every day happening, I saw and was able to photograph two small ones.





Yep, the yaks are here too.

We sported t-shirts for a photo op to help promote the non-profit The Food Group that Keri is the Executive Director for in Sheridan, Wyoming.



And a scouting group photo with the Troop 113 flag.  Myself and David (right side) are both ASM's in Troop 113. Boz is an Eagle Scout (1987) so he is gets to be in the photo too.



There are helicopters constantly flying in and out and past EBC.  Caught a couple interesting photos, amazing how well they are able to fly at this altitude.







Boz made the trek (>110 miles) wearing flip-flops the entire way (except when he was bare foot) and shorts most of the time.  He is a machine!

Kalapatther

In the afternoon of our arrival to Gorakshep, we started up Kalapatther.  This schedule was one of  the deviations and alterations needed due to the schedule change when we couldn't cross the Cho La pass.  All of us set out to climb the peak, four of us made it to the summit where it was extremely windy and quite cool.  The views are amazing.

First and foremost, it was crystal clear skies so we had a perfect view of Everest's summit, south summit, Hilary Step, the yellow band and the whole pyramid mastiff.



My altitude where I took this photo from is just under 5,600m. 

The summit of Everest is 8,824m or just about 2 miles higher than me.  Where I'm standing the atmosphere is quite thin and approximately 50% oxygen density of sea level.  The summit of Everest is 33% the oxygen density of seal level.

While on this peak, I brought a couple flags to take photos of.  First, the Troop 113 flag with myself and Boz. On the left side of the photo above Boz's head you can see the West ridge of Everest and then the black pyramid of the Everest Summit behind that.  Above my head is Ntupse.  Lhotse is blocked from view mostly.

And being a good Bobcat, I also brought up my MSU flag.

Off to the left of Boz's shoulder you can see the Khumbu Ice Fall too.  Here is a closer view of the ice fall.