EBC day 1- Lukla to Phakding

Day 1  Lukla to Phakding on June 13, 2013

Everest Base Camp Trek

Last night I had to say bye to some of the most amazing people I have met! I am hoping that our paths cross sometime down the road because these people are unlike many others I have met before! Before setting off on our different ways we had one last hoorah in Kathmandu which I will post more about in another post. Before leaving however they filled my soon to be Everest journal with little nots to keep me inspire and laughing on the way!!!! 

With very little sleep I woke up at 4 am to get ready for the journey. Feeling anxious and scared I hoped straight in the cold shower to scrub myself clean one last time before leaving to trek. Who knows the next time I will get a food shower, although I'm used to that by now.

I am not sure what to expect at this moment due to it being monsoon season. During the main season many people travel into Sagarmatha National Park and quite a few even to the base camp. This has built up the Sherpa area a lot and there are now many guesthouses with food and Internet. Since it is off season I'm not sure how much will be open and what the living conditions will be like.

I quietly packed the rest of my new 45 liter pack back full to the brim! Crunching and stuffing things in it still barely fit. I woke Daniel up to snag a quick picture of me before I depart and headed out the door at 4:45 am to catch my plane.

 

Leaving the guest house and hoping into the taxi I felt my nerves start to set in. I was about to take a flight into the worlds most dangerous airport. It has earned this reputation due to a number of factors. First, is the airports track record. With a limited number of flights coming in a day and a number of crashes the percentage rate of success is much lower than airports with high traffic. The second factor is its physical make-up. The landing strip is a short little runway that slants uphill when approaching. The start of the runway is a cliff edge plummeting down a thousand feet into the valley below. At the end of the runway is yet another cliff that towers straight up above. Without the right conditions and a skilled pilot the plane ca easily crash. When approaching the landing you swoop through the green mountain tops. Finally you cross a river and made a downward plunge and at this point there is no turning back. Unlike other airports there is no chance of. Missed approach, it is a one shot deal!

Thinking about the plane ride as I stood in line for my ticket after arriving at the airport was making me nauseous. A monkey violently shook a tree nearby and snapped me back into the reality of where I was and how lucky I am to be here. My guide hands me my ticket for Tara airline (from the Yeti ticket counter) and says jam jam (let's go). Without a passport or any Id at all I'm gent,y patted down by a female officer and let into the terminal gate. Looking at my ticket did not help my nerves at all. The ticket read that it was 31 July 2013 instead of the 13th. If an airline was so careless as to switch the numbers around how should I trust them with this ridiculous flight. With 16 of us on the plane (13 Sherpas and 3 Trekkers) we took off no officially started our journey.

 

In the end I made it safe to Lukla and the flight was actually very nice. Watching the landing was scary but a very cool lifetime experience. Going out will be a different story when the plane takes off over the cliff edge!!! The airport is named Hilary-Tenzing airport after Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay who are the first two people to successfully scale everest to its peak. I read "Into Thin Air" by John Kraukner, the same man who wrote "Into the Wild." Probably not the best choice. Although the s disaster takes place climbing Everest he recounts the trip to base camp as well and does not describe it as the easiest thing with many people getting altitude sickness! Keeping my fingers crossed I don't get anything too bad!

My guide and I made our way to a cute hotel to have breakfast before hiking. I hoped to see the two boys from the plane again on the trial because with the lack of tourism this time of year it like be nice to meet a few people. After breakfast we started our hike towards Phagding or Phakding. I've noticed that many towns and things have many ways of spelling and no one seems to have established one correct way. They have an attitude of "if it sounds close who cares" attitude towards these things.

The hike was not terrible the first day. Only a three short hours over some gentle terrain and crossing one suspension bridge! We ran into two other Trekkers named Richard and Dave and walked with them the rest of the way to Phakding. They were determined to continue on but I was more than happy to take it easy the first day. Maybe I will run into them again at some point.

 

I ate a lunch of soup noodles and water with vitamins. I was so tired from not sleeping the night before I dozed off a few times! After lunch I went to my room which was much nicer, probably nicer than all the guest houses I've stayed in during my city visits, and took a nap. In the evening I sat with four Sherpas and watched some Hindi movies. Although I couldn't understand them they were so entertaining and very cheesy according to our standings. One was a death race with people completing tasks until one man was left standing (similar to hunger games because I believe two of the people fell in love and the game coordinator was not happy) and one about a mad scientist who had a wild dog beast who was killing people. Very bizarre. 

Day one was a success but looking at the map that evening showed me just how much further I really had to go! Especially because I am resolved on carrying my own stuff the entire time. My pack is very heavy so we will see if I cave and hire a porter or ditch all of my stuff!