Trekking Sagarmatha National Park (Day 1-2)

To begin my trek, I flew with my guide, Bishnu, from Kathmandu to Lukla, Nepal. Just like flying to Pokhara, the flight was very short, only 25 minutes long, and provided a great view of the Himalayas. Lukla's airport is said to be the most dangerous airport in the world, and you can see why as it is tucked into the mountains at 2840m/9317' and the runway is not only very short but ends very abruptly against the side of the mountain (which has a nice Welcome to Lukla sign on it). It kind of feels like landing on an aircraft carrier that's perched at about a 35 degree tilt on the edge of the mountain. Below is the view as we approached the landing strip.


After landing safely, we gathered our gear and Bishnu hired a porter and we headed to a lodge called the Nest for some breakfast. Here I met some other Trekkers from Canada and England and we talked about our upcoming adventure.





Afterwards, we began our trek with a moderate hike that brought us to the village of Phakding (elevation 2610m/8562'). Along the way, we passed through several small villages, many of which had Buddhist stupas, prayer wheels and prayer flags. We passed by many porters and yaks carrying tremendous loads on their backs as much of the food, drink and even building supplies are carried up. We covered roughly 7 miles and even though it was mostly downhill, there was plenty of up and down, so I still managed to hike up the equivalent of 60 flights of stairs. At lunch, I met a father and son from Australia who were on their way down from Everest Base Camp. They told me they had prepared for the thin air by working out on treadmills at a facility in Sydney that simulated the decreased oxygen levels at high altitude. These facilities are often used by professional athletes to enable them to build up more red blood cells. I'm guessing it wasn't cheap, but certainly a good idea if you have access to such a facility.
After spending the night in Phakding, we began our second day of trekking to the village of Namche Bazar, which would be much more challenging, as we would ascend from 2610m to 3440m/11286'. The hike was about 8 miles long, but involved going up the equivalent of 260 flights of steps (and crossing numerous suspension bridges like the one in the photo below). While not quite as many flights as my trek to Kokona two weeks ago, this trek was at a much higher altitude and proved to be a very challenging climb. I was pretty physically spent by the time we checked into our lodge for lunch after the 5 hour trek. This picture shows the beginning of our big ascent.



Namche is the gateway for all Trekkers in Sagarmatha National Park, regardless of whether they are going to Everest Base Camp, Gokyo Lake or doing some other circuit. It's also the gateway for climbers looking to ascend Everest or any of the other 8000m+ peaks in the park. Currently there are no climbers heading to Everest because the month of May is the only time of year that the weather is suitable to attempt the summit.
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