Mt. Everest 2004: Mountain Madness Expedition 2004 Dispatch Four

Day 4: March 30 2004: This is Sarah Henley reporting from Phakding.  Today was very exciting especially our flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. We took a small Twin Otter plane.  The run-way in Lukla is about 600 ft. long and is on an incline directly into a mountain cliff, to help the plane slow down .  Of course, now you can understand why I called it hair-raising yesterday...  During the landing we could see through the front window of the plane and all we saw was cliff. 

Once we arrived we were served our first sit down meal, something we will get used to three times a day.  The group was also very impressed when they discovered their tents set up for them at camp.  First class service!

Today's hike was beautiful and was definitely a taste of what is to come.  We are camping in the town of Phakding at 8360 ft. or 2550 meters.  The only down fall is a couple of the group members have caught some GI bug and were definitely dragging.  Hopefully, things will look up tomorrow!

In the morning we hike to Namche Bazaar where we will spend a rest day at 11300 ft.  Namche is the most important city in the Khumbu.

 

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