After spending a few days in Katmandu exploring it's now time to continue our trek to Everest. We will be flying to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla (9,383 ft) a 40 min scenic flight thru the mountains. Some very interesting facts about this airport. The runway is at a 12% uphill grade to reduce speed as the pilot lands. In return helps them build up airspeed when taking off. The runway is 1,729ft long. There is no go around when landing since you are landing directly in the side of the mountain. The pilots have one shot only to land. Yikes.... They go thru some serious training to be able to fly into this airport. The end of the airport is only a 9,000 foot drop off. Hair raising... yes indeed! Make sure you watch the video below to get a better idea of this crazy little airport.
This is where our official trek to Everest Base camp starts. We will spending a little time here before we start our trekking to the Everest Region.
We will start descending towards the Dudh Kosi River crossing our first suspension bridge. We will continue to Phakding for the night (8,562 ft). Phakding is a small village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. It lies in the Dudh Kosi river valley just north of Lukla and south of Monjo.
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