Flight to Lukla & Trek to Phakding

Just to update, I am now day 4 into my Everest Summit expedition, and last night I finally got my kit bag that had been stuck at Heathrow and Mumbai airports. I woke up to my alarm at 6:10am after a fairly restless night’s sleep. Showered and washed, and got the final bits into my bag. Breakfast was 2 fried eggs, 2 bananas and 2 pancakes with maple syrup.

By 6:45am we had bags in the minivan and we were heading to the airport. The airport was not as busy as I thought it might be, although there were a lot of trekking bags. Our flight was due to take off at 8:30am flight which was no3 out of KTM. I had to pay 11,000 rupees in bag charges as I was far too heavy. My two black bags weighed in at 28kg, 21 kg, and my hand luggage with all the batteries was 14kg! Not great. Again I was regretting taking that drone and three batteries which were super heavy.

As my hand luggage was so heavy they decided to check it in, but when I got to security, I asked Raj to check if it was ok (as I had powerbanks, batteries and other electricals in my hand carry-on bag). Raj said it was fine for it to be checked in. But I asked him to check with security, and they told him no, it needs to be in the hand luggage. Geljen went back to the check-in area where our bags were on a trolley and he got my hand-luggage and brought it to me. I went straight through security, even with my Garmin InReach, and my star link, and nothing got flagged.

As you can imagine, the flights were all delayed and this was not a surprise and not really a problem. We had got through security without any issues which was a huge relief. When you do these expeditions, getting through security and bag checks is always a concern as you carry so many electrical items (drones, cameras, Insta 360, go pro, spare batteries, Star link, Withings scales, etc).

Right now, I am currently sitting in the departure lounge waiting to see when we might be able to get our flight. Its about an hour late right now, but that does not matter as long as we get on it with all our bags and get to Lukla today.

After a 2 hour 45 minute delay, we made it onto the plane. The plane carried around 20 people so it was small. When we went through clouds the plane really shook a lot, and it looked like it was from the 1970s. All the décor inside was very dated, and at least 40 years old.

As we came in towards Lukla, there was alerts going off in the cockpit saying “terrain, terrain” and again “terrain, terrain” and it was reminded me why this was called the most dangerous airport in the World. When we landed everyone was clearly very relieved and a few people gave a gentle clap. The lady behind me said “we are so lucky as everyone else had to get helicopters”.

We got out at Lukla, and I met Dhanu who was our videographer, drone operator and photographer. He was super-friendly and it was good to finally meet him. We got our bags (yes they were all on the flight… relief), and then took them to a restaurant/lodge in Lukla where we had lunch.

I insisted that my bags have two porters, as originally they were planning to have one porter. I said I would pay extra. I did not feel comfortable with one porter carrying both my bags – they were weighing in at 50kg! Geljen organised the second porter.

Lukla stats:
Altitude: 2850m
Resting Heart Rate: 59
SPO2: 96%

We left and trekked to Phakding, which was 10km from Lukla, and took 3 hours to get to. It was mostly downhill, but towards the end there were some uphill sections that felt quite tough, although I think I was feeling tired. I remembered what Jon Gupta had said about taking things slowly, and also Geljen too in Ama Dablam saying to take things slowly. When I came here 18 months ago I charged from Lukla to Phakding, but this time I noticed I didn’t have the same energy levels today.

When I arrived at Phakding, we crossed the bridge to the left side of the valley and trekked to the far end of Phakding to a lodge called Sonam Guest House. Geljen showed me my room, and I went to the main dining area and slept for about an hour. I felt tired, and when I woke up, I definitely felt better. After the sleep Dhanu and I went through all the camera gear. We had no wifi unfortunately from the lodge, it was so slow it could barely connect. We had several power outages too, and we are in one right now as I type this. I had food – yak steak, chips, fried eggs, and lemon honey ginger tea. The honey lemon ginger tea is AMAZING!

Lukla to Phakding: 2 hours 56 minutes
Moving time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Elevation climbed: 322 meters
Altitude: 2690m

Tomorrow we head to Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa Capital, and Gateway to Everest.

Stats
Weight: 70.5kg
Fat 16.2%
Muscle 79.6%
Visceral Fat 2.6
Resting hear rate 61
Nerve health 88
Sp02 94%