Nepal 2019

Nepal 2019

Last year’s trek in the Annapurna region was such a great experience that I have returned for another trek.

This year we are three. My nephew Matthew is back for some more well-earned beer at altitude, and we are joined by my old friend Bruce, who walked a portion of the Appalachian Trail with me two years ago.

This year we are hoping to walk the Everest Three Pass trek. I say “hoping” because this trek is rated as “hard”. It is also considered to be perhaps the best of the tea house treks. The Three Pass trek goes to the Everest Base Camp, but it also does a traverse of the Everest region, passing through less visited valleys as well as taking the trekker to the Gokyo lakes.

The starting point of the trek is the small town of Lukla, which is not accessible by road from Kathmandu. It is possible to go part of the way to Lukla by bus, and then do a six day approach trek, but most people fly to the small airstrip at Lukla. It is often described, correctly or not, as the most dangerous airstrip in the world. A Google search generates any number of videos of 18 passenger planes approaching a short runway that is little more than a shelf in the mountains. The last crash was in April, so that makes it proudly 200 days fatality free. That’s good, isn’t it?