Everest base camp, the base to get to the top of the world Mt. Everest (8848m) is used to describe 2 base camps, the North base camp in Tibet and the South base camp in Nepal. We had been planning a trek to South base camp at an altitude of 5364 m (17,598 feet) for a while.
And the day we had been looking forward to for so long was finally here. The flight to Lukla was to depart at 615 am. It was a day of great excitement; we had been planning this for more than 6 months and finally we were to start our trek to Everest base camp today. We were a group of 5, 3 women and 2 men, a group that had come together for the Everest base camp trek. Each one of us knew at least one person in the group. We had trained for this for a while and done weekend treks for several months. And finally the moment of truth was here.
We had checked out of our hotel in Thamel (in Kathmandu) the previous night and were all ready to head to the airport at 5 am. The departures area at Kathmandu airport was disappointing. It seemed like we were not carrying too much but eventually we paid excess baggage of 15 kgs for the entire group. The boarding was quick. It was a small plane, a Dornier 228-212 that could carry 17 passengers and everyone of us was either climbing or trekking. The plane took off within 5 minutes of us boarding. Soon one could see the rolling hills in various shades of green and serpentine brown rivers, the characteristic muddy color due to the monsoon rains.
It was just the start of the season and we did not expect a lot of crowd. The avalanche of April 18, 2014 had ensured that no one could attempt summit for a while. Climbers attempting summit, did so in the months of April and May. And finally, we could see several snow capped Himalayan peaks appear above the clouds. It was surreal with the rays of the rising sun reflecting on the peaks.
And then, the captain called the air hostess and we were told that we are returning back to Kathmandu due to a technical issue. We landed back in Tribhuvan airport safely and the technical issue was going to take an hour. After a couple of hours, the flight took off for the second time. After a 30 minute flight, the air hostess told us, we would be landing in Lukla. We were thrilled. This is it, we get to Phakding by afternoon. And in the next 5 minutes, the captain told us that we would need to return to Kathmandu as there was too much cloud cover to attempt a safe visual landing. We were amused, but on a serious note, this was always expected to happen. Lukla is one of the most dangerous airports to land in. It is not new to wait several days for the weather to clear to make a safe landing at Lukla. By noon, Yeti airways confirmed that the flights to Lukla were cancelled for the day. We took our bags and headed back to the hotel where we had spent the previous two nights. The best thing to do seemed a good lunch and an afternoon siesta. It started raining in the evening at about 4 pm and we were wondering what tomorrow had in store for us. Our new flights were again at 615 am in the morning the next day. It was pouring cats and dogs all through the night and we were very anxious about our flights the next day.
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