EVACUATED BY HELICOPTER

One of four helicopters struggling to take off in the thin air near Lukla, Nepal.

Weather in the mountains is a fickle lady, as we found out at what we thought was the end of our trek. 

Thanks to a thick curtain of fog that welcomed us back to Lukla, we spent two days and nights there, waiting for a Kathmandu flight that never departed (no, it wasn't on Yeti Airlines). On the morning of day three, the sky nowhere in sight, we were forced to hike two hours down the mountain to join a crowd of other stranded hikers to hop a helicopter out, lest we all miss connecting flights scheduled for the next day. 

Small world story--while waiting in the cold on a remote hilltop in Nepal, we bumped into a guy from New Orleans, Tim Walsh, who's friends with our good friends Kristian and Emery. Over beers we toasted their recent wedding...congrats guys!

After waiting overnight, we finally hitched a ride with six Canadian hikers who'd been trekking for nearly a month. The flight was a bit terrifying, and it certainly wasn't cheap, but the views were stunning and we thankfully got a refund on the canceled flight.

Once out of the clouds, the views weren't bad at all, as seen from these terraced hills emerald green with rice. 

While stuck in Lukla before the flight, we managed to have a little fun, perhaps not surprisingly. Together with a crew of other travelers met on the trail, we ended up renting out the tiny town's theater, which more resembled a concrete bunker than a cinema house. The proprietor, a local Sherpa woman, thought we were crazy, but she still agreed to supply popcorn if we bought beer from her. In the musty basement, we watched Touching the Void, a documentary about two climbers who nearly died attempting to summit an unclimbed mountain.  

All in all, it was an incredible trip we were sad to see end. But it's time we moved on, hopefully to lower, more level ground, at least for awhile. 

The crew at Lukla's only movie theater, which we rented out for a night while we were all stranded.

The Lukla crew, which includes an Aussie, a Zimbabwean, a guy from Chicago, and a guy from Japan among others.

Touchdown in Kathmandu. We split the fare with six Canadians who'd' been hiking for four weeks. Fun, smelly times.

WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS FLIGHT

The 15,000-foot view from our flight to Lukla, Nepal, home of the world's most dangerous airport.

If you want to trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, chances are you'll be flying into Lukla's Tenzing-Hilary Airport. Deemed "the most dangerous airport in the world" the airport sits at nearly 10,000 feet, features a single runway less than 1,500 feet long (most commercial runways are more than 5,000 feet) and is built on a 12 percent slope that on one end collides with solid rock and the other falls off steeply into a deep valley. 

It's not exactly leisure travel, but considering the alternative was taking a rickety bus for 10 hours along dangerous mountain curves, followed by four days of hiking uphill, we decided to take our chances. 

A twin-prop plane preps for the downhill take-off from Lukla's airport at 9,100 feet.

However, before we could defy death by landing at the airport, we first had to survive an hour-long, knuckle-whitening flight from Kathmandu to get here. This is the same flight that crashed in late September this year, killing all on board.

Nervous would be an understatement. 

From our seats in the well-used, twin-prop plane, we did see some stunning views of Mt. Everest. Yet we also got unwanted pilot's-eye views through the cockpit, where the captain and co-pilot wove skillfully between swirling storm clouds, dodged soaring vultures, and let the wings skim dangerously close to the peaks of some of the world's highest mountains.

On our flight, one person cried, two passengers hurled, and three on-board screamed out loud when we hit turbulence on our approach to Lukla. We'll let you guess which of us was included in the aforementioned stats.

Upon landing (and kissing the asphalt runway much too intimately), we grabbed our heavy backpacks and headed quickly up the dirt and stone trail into Lukla. In addition to the flight, we had been awake since 5 am, and we had six hours of uphill hiking ahead. We needed a drink.

Our celebratory coffee on making it to Lukla alive and kicking-off the long trek to Base Camp.
Thanks for the drink, readers!

Considering we hadn't yet had breakfast, we opted for two strong Everest coffees and some fresh apple strudel from a nearby bakery (thanks for the contributions, readers Todd and Tori P, Alison J, Ben P, and Lindsay N!)

With our caffeine fix and some time to calm our nerves, we headed up the trail, starting a 12-day return trek to Everest Base Camp. Seeing as Kip refused to buy a map or hire a guide or porter, we'll need all the luck we can get. 

The son of the bakery owner gives us the thumbs up as we hit the trail to Everest Base Camp.