Waiting for Airwolf

Well the other Jagged Globe groups may have left he hotel yesterday, but they came back later, and they weren’t happy. They’d spent the day at Kathmandu airport being promised flights that never materialised, and they were blaming Jagged Globe’s agents in Kathmandu.

When it became obvious that we weren’t going to fly, we tried to arrange yet another night in the hotel, but discovered we couldn’t all fit. We were only booked for Sunday night originally so six of us had to move down the road to the Greenwich Village hotel, which wasn’t quite as nice as the Summit but had the bonus of free wifi.

Rich, Dave, Martin and I spent the afternoon exploring Thamel, the tourist area of Kathmandu. In amongst the hundreds of counterfeit gear shops there are three or four real ones so we began by scouring the Mountain Hardwear and North Face shops for any last minute purchases we might need for the expedition. Unfortunately I’d bought so much kit before I left that I couldn’t see anything I could justify buying. Dave knew Thamel pretty well, so guided us to a shop selling Kukri, then on to a bookshop where I found a map of the Khumbu, covering most of our route.

Back at the Summit, we met up with the rest of the team, who weren’t in great spirits – the news from the Island Peak/Everest Base Camp team had been pretty depressing.  A short while later though, Andy arrived and announced we’d got a helicopter lined up! It’s not entirely clear how this came about or was funded, but it seems likely that Jagged Globe sorted it out, presumably to avoid having both groups missing significant proportions of their trips.

This morning, for the fourth day in a row, we packed our kit up. Unlike the previous three, we actually left the hotel this time. The first few stages at the airport went pretty smoothly, but once we were through to the departure lounge it descended into chaos again. No-one seemed to know what was going on, and we spent ages sitting around while a horrific female voice barked incomprehensible noises from the tannoy.

Finally, after several hours of waiting, there was action, and we were driven off across the airfield in a tiny jeep. The route left the domestic terminal and seemed to take in most of the perimeter road – after 5-10 minutes we were dropped off in what seemed to be an aeroplane graveyard, surrounded by shells of ancient planes with no engines and helicopters without rotors.

Unfortunately that was as good as it got for the next few hours, so we sheltered from the rain under the wing of an old Fokker and waited. There was excitement every time we heard a helicopter, but they all seemed to be little four-seaters, then finally a massive Soviet Mil Mi-8 AMT troop carrier thundered into view, and we were in business.

It seemed to take ages to unload, pack all our bags in and refuel, but eventually it was ready and we took off for Lukla. The flight took around 45 minutes and was pretty straightforward, with endless views of the terracing around the hillside villages, but nothing hugely spectacular. Lukla on the other hand was amazing.

Shortly after we landed, as we were beginning to unload the bags, a small plane shot up the steep runway next to the helipad and managed to come to a halt before reaching the stone wall at the end. As we were leaving, another plane taxied to the top of the runway, opened its engines up to full power with the brakes on, then rocketed off down the hill and up into the sky. The runway is tiny – it’s hard to believe it’s long enough, but it seems to work…

We climbed up round the top of the runway and on up to our first lodge, where were given tea, introduced to the Sherpas and assigned rooms. The rooms are pretty basic (bare plywood floor, walls and ceiling, and a bit of foam for a mattress on a simple wooden bed frame) but are a lot better than I’m expecting when we get further up the valley! At first glance the toilets look normal, but they have no water supply, so are flushed using a jug of water from a big barrel.

Lukla itself seems to be mainly lodges, clustered around the airfield. There are various shops and a few bars, and even a fake Starbucks with free wifi!