Day 4: Fly to Lukla

Hiking time: 3-4 hours
Difficulty Level: Easy
After final administration requirements, we’ll fly to Lukla. Weather permitting, this flight offers outstanding views of the eastern Himalayas. In Lukla, we meet and join our Sherpa staff, load the yaks and begin the ascent to Base Camp. Our first day is an easy walk to lush environs of Phakding, located on the Dudh Kosi river.

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Update from the Team:

Greetings from Phakding! Our first day is in the books! After a 4:15 AM wake up call, we are excited to be tucking ourselves into bed at our first tea house. After multiple days of flights being cancelled to Lukla we weren’t sure how the day was going to go for us.

It was likely that we could have gotten bumped back to give priority to those whose flights had been cancelled, led to a change of plans and we arrived by helicopter! We had to split up into two groups due to helicopter capacity, the first group arrived at 7 AM while our second half didn’t arrive until 1 PM. While a “low” we were just grateful that we all made it safe and on the same day! After lunch we started making our trek to Phakding taking in all the mountains views, animals, and people that crossed our path.

What originally looked like a rainy afternoon parted ways for clear skies, too! We’re already keeping tallies for how many dal bhat’s (a local Nepali dish) and lemon ginger honey teas we’ll consume in the 8 more days to come! And of course, Branston’s highlight (+ surprise), “snicker rolls,” exactly how your picturing it likely at your local state fair.