lukla airport

since school was so crazy at the end and any teacher i've ever talked to needs a break when the final whistle blows, i decided to go up into the mountains. several of my friends at school said gokyo was the place to go. it's off the beaten path, better than everest base camp and holds stunning views of mountains and glacial lakes. i was game, but couldn't find anyone to accompany me, so was just going to fly up to lukla and get a porter/guide from one of the lodges up there. it's quite common just to hire someone on the spot. well, the evening of the last day of school, we were invited to a private dinner going away party for the friend i went to thailand with, alex. she invited her best friend, peter and he invited his girlfriend and two other friends. amongst those two other friends was a young nepali guy whom he has 'adopted' and taken care of for years...long story. well, choesang wound up being very thrilled at the opportunity to go with me and so it was set. we left tuesday, miraculously after only a 2 hour delay, and made it up to lukla with plenty of time to trek to the next town. unfortunately, two friends of mine from lincoln had tried the whole weekend to make it up, but flights were cancelled, so they changed their plans. the first few days were refreshing and exhilarating to be up in the mountain. i think i was so glad that the crazy flight was over, i saw life a little differently! lol... the flight was something, for sure and i was happy to touch down! notice in the video how short the runway is and that it is on a steep incline to help the plane decelerate after landing. the flight that crashed last october didn't keep its nose up far enough and slammed into the edge of the cliff. the pilots know the route and mountains so well because they fly without radar; it's all by sight. when clouds come up unexpectedly though, it gets tricky. a week later, when i returned to lukla to fly out, i took this video. people had been stranded because the airport was clouded in and closed for 5 days. that morning i got up at 4:30 to complete the last couple hours of trekking just in case the weather was clear enough to fly. since it had been raining, i was hopeful the clouds would move out. upon my arrival in lukla, however, a couple people i met on the trail were there and had been for several days. i was bummed to find out it was very drizzly and visibility was extremely poor. i mean, you couldn't see the building across the road! needless to say, i was very very fortunate to be able to fly out that same day. we hung out at a lodge for most of the morning, ate some breakfast, watched a movie and then later that afternoon, after some yeti flights were canceled, the clouds cleared right out and agni...my airline...and yeti resumed flying. it was like all of a sudden we looked outside and you could see the view on the video. we heard agni was taking off, so we hustled down to the airport to check in. with so many people ahead of me though, i was hesitantly optimistic. yeti and agni hustled 4 flights each in there and cleared out the back log. luckily it's the off-season and the back log wasn't very much. peak season would have seen hundreds and hundreds of people waiting and with only 12-16 passengers per plane (depending on size) it would take a long time to get caught up. there is a trek to get out, but from what i've read and heard, it's really brutal, all straight up and straight down, takes 5 days and when you're done...you've climbed the equivalent of everest! no thanks...i was willing to relax and wait for the planes! : )  whew!