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!

Stand down (again)

We were stood down at about 3pm yesterday afternoon, when it became clear we weren’t going to fly. Lukla was open yesterday, but there’s now such a backlog that it may take days to catch up,

and since our flights were on the third day of delays, we’re at the back of the queue: they fly each day’s scheduled flights first, and then start on the oldest part of the backlog.

With every update from the airport, Andy apologised and thanked us for being so understanding. I think he must have expected more trouble!

Now the airport is open, Andy seems a lot more positive about flying. Walking in is still an option, but there’s no talk of setting off today and I think he’s prepared to wait until tomorrow if we’re unlucky today. It’s a bit of a gamble as we don’t know for certain when we’ll be able to fly, but if we walk then we lose one of the three summits straight away. If we fly today or tomorrow then we can still fit all three summits in if the weather isn’t too bad, though we’re probably going to chop off the last few days of the original plan (a minor climb to get a good view of Everest).

After we’d been stood down yesterday, Rich, Mark, Vanessa and I caught a cab into Kathmandu to visit the temples at Pashupatinath (Hindu) and Boudhanath (Buddist). Pashupatinath doesn’t allow non-Hindus in, but it’s worth a visit to see the monuments surrounding the main temple, and the funeral sites along the banks of the Bagmati River. Boudhanath is one of the biggest stupa in the world, and was looking pretty impressive in the evening sun.

Back at the hotel I finished my book, and we ate what will hopefully be our last evening meal before we fly. We also planned a yoga class for this morning – Dave is (at least semi-) qualified, so has just lead a class in the hotel garden! We ended up doing it on slightly damp grass and it got pretty hot as the sun rose over the trees, but it feels good to have stretched a bit.

There’s no news on our flights yet, but the other Jagged Globe groups have gone, so hopefully we can get out of here today.

Tick follows tock…

…and the wait goes on. We gave up in the middle of yesterday afternoon and Rich (my room-mate) and I walked to Patan Durbar Square, one of the seven Monument Zones that make up the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site. The square is full of temples but seemed pretty similar to Kathmandu Durbar Square, so Rich and I adjourned to a bar overlooking the square and sampled some Nepal Ice beer.

A small group of us went out for some food in the evening, and Andy told us a few stories from previous trips he’s been on. I came away thinking that I don’t want to be one of his future horror-stories, so had better put in a good effort when we start climbing!

I think Andy is beginning to feel quite bad about the situation we’re in. He bought us all a beer last night, and keeps apologising for the fact that we haven’t flown yet. He’s pointed out several times that this is what adventure travel is like, but seems very aware that people may be getting annoyed. So far though, everyone is in good spirits and I haven’t heard any complaints.

One option Andy mentioned is to forget the flights and walk in. This would take 7 days (1 day in a bus then 6 walking), and would mean we’d definitely lose at least 1 of our 3 summits. He seems keen to switch to this option tomorrow if we haven’t flown by the end of today, but I’m not sure that makes much sense – I’d prefer to hang around here another day or two as a flight on Wednesday or Thursday would give us a lot more time than walking in.

Chaos in Kathmandu

Arriving in Kathmandu I was very grateful that I was part of a group. Andy, the leader, told us that we shouldn’t tip anyone, which has already proved useful advice – as we pushed our trolleys towards the bus we were approached by “porters” who asked “Are you part of the Jagged Globe group?” then whisked our trolleys away, only to demand payment a hundred metres later at the bus.

There were others begging, but using a tactic I hadn’t seen before: rather than just asking for money they offered £4.50 (in sterling) and asked for a £5 note.

Kathmandu is a pretty crazy place at the best of times. Once you’ve escaped the airport you’re thrown into the most noisy and disorganised traffic system on the planet. Then while you’re crawling along in the inevitable traffic jam, feeling the initial irritation caused by the clouds of smog you’re inhaling, you watch the half-built buildings clad in precariously bendy bamboo-scaffolding, the modern glass office blocks and the slums in between them going by.

The Summit Hotel is slightly south of the main chaos, in Patan, and in total contrast to the rest of Kathmandu, is calm, quiet and peaceful – even the air seems cleaner. We were supposed to leave here in the early hours of this morning to fly to Lukla, but it’s currently raining there and the airport is closed, so the group is relaxing in the garden of the hotel, discussing snow leopards and gradually getting to know each other.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla is rated as the most dangerous in the world. Its runway is 460m long and has a gradient of 12%. At the bottom of the runway the hillside drops hundreds of metres down into the Dudh Kosi valley, while at the top there’s a big stone wall holding up the hillside. Unfortunately the weather at the moment is not conducive to safe arrivals, as Lukla doesn’t have any landing aids – if you can’t see the runway, you can’t land. We’ve been getting hourly updates all morning, but apparently the rain is still falling and there haven’t been any flights, so we’re staying here for the moment and ordering lunch.

Andy doesn’t seem too worried about losing a day. Our schedule has a couple of bad weather days built into it, so if the weather is OK after this then we may still be able to fit the whole itinerary in. We’re supposed to walk for a few hours this afternoon but it’s already too late for that, so it doesn’t make much difference now whether we fly later today or tomorrow morning.

The group seems pretty friendly. They’re an interesting mix, but mainly blokes in their 30s and 40s. So far the group has been quite quiet, but it’s early days so we’ll see how things develop. There are some pretty experienced climbers in the team: Andy has lead 28 trips for Jagged Globe, been in the mountain rescue in the UK and spent 2½ years with the BAS in the Antarctic, a Scottish guy called Mark has climbed in the Alps, the Andes and all over Africa, and there’s a young couple from Fulham who seem quite experienced too. There’s a guy called Dave who’s been out here several times before and seems to know the area well – he and Mark are pouring over a map trying to work out where we’re heading.

Here we go again

I’m currently waiting for a tube at Hammersmith. I’m feeling quite nervous about the trip, but I’m not really sure why. It’s not because I think I can’t do it – I’m pretty confident that if the knees survive then I should be OK.

I think the nerves are more to do with the fact that in under an hour I should have met the nine other climbers that I’m going to spend the next four weeks with. There’s going to be precious little contact with anyone outside them and the supporting cast of guides, porters, cooks etc, so hopefully we’ll all get on…