Lukla Airport, Nepal

By Mike Huber

Yet again apologies for the prolonged hiatus from writing.  I think five or six countries have passed since my previous blogs and I have just been caught up in the moment and dealing with life in my own way (is there any other way to deal with it?).  Having a bit of downtime over the holidays I thought I would try to pick up where I believe I left off.

In April I was scheduled for a 0700 flight from Ramechhap Airport in Nepal into Lukla Airport, which is the gateway to Everest Base Camp.  It is only a 20-minute flight between the two airports and as I stated in my previous blog after three days of delays forced me to scrap the Everest Base Camp trek originally. This was due to constant cancellations e to weather conditions.  As you can imagine the weather patterns in the Himalayan Mountains aren’t always smooth. There is nothing more demoralizing then boarding a flight and having the props fire up and then have the flight scratched and having to deplane.  Actually, there is.  That being if you fly halfway to Lukla and then are forced to return to Ramechhap due to winds.  This isn’t the best way to start off your journey to the rooftop of the world.

Lukla Airport is the world’s most dangerous airport.  Nature is brutal in these mountains and add in the dramatic runway at a 45-degree angle which ends abruptly and drops off 2,000 feet into some foggy abyss becomes a recipe for either numerous cancelled flights, or worse yet, a disaster.  When the Airport is up and running it is quite a sight.  Helicopters in and out constantly in-between fixed wing aircraft landing and gear and supplies being wheeled all over the tarmac.  It’s probably not only the most dangerous airport in the world but the busiest one for having only a single runway.

The other thing that I was to learn was even though it took four days to obtain a successful flight into the airport (I ended up opting for a helicopter to improve my odds of making it to Everest Base Camp) was that leaving Lukla airport is just as difficult. After two days of cancelled flights to return to Katmandu I once again chose to take a helicopter.

I was fortunate that I was in no rush, that and having the foresight to obtain a 90-day visa for Nepal almost assured me that I would eventually make it in and out of Lukla with minimal stress.  Having both time and patience was required for this as five full days of my two months in Nepal were spent gaining access and leaving Everest Base Camp through Lukla Airport.  I knew this time spent sitting in the airport making new friends would pay off once I began the trek to Everest Base Camp.

Another great asset was having my tour guide Kiran from www.theholidaytrek.com make the layovers much more tolerable as all I had to do was show up and hope the flight would be a go.  He took care of all the bookings, rebookings, and hotel accommodation setups.  I am not one to plug companies and I rarely am on tours but Kiran made being stranded for five days almost fun.  There also was another positive out of it.  While having a captive audience in Lukla I became friends with another trekker and we are going to be neighbors in the next country I travel to in a week.  Colombia!

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