In One Ear: Everest adventure

Julie Clouser, a Seaside High School graduate, now lives in Tennessee with her husband, Christopher. The couple visit Seaside often, but recently went much further afield for a trip to the Mount Everest Base Camp, 17,598 feet high in the Himalayas.

The couple landed in Kathmandu, Nepal, for a day of sightseeing, then were driven to Ramechhap Airport to fly to Lukla.

A little geography: Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, (elevation 4,344 feet), with a population of about a million, was founded in 723. Before the construction of roads, travel was limited to footpaths.

On the approximately five-hour drive from Kathmandu to Ramechhap (elevation 4,646 feet) for the flight to Lukla, as the road climbs, it eventually narrows, and has several hairpin turns. The upside, of course, is the mountain scenery.

Many Sherpas live in Lukla, (elevation 9,380 feet, population about 5,000). The planes flying in from Ramechhap are not pressurized and there is turbulence in the high mountain passes, and pilots have to fly there using instrument flight rules and land using visual flight rules. However harrowing the flight is, there have only been four deaths in the last 10 years, during which they carried over a million passengers.

“Lukla Airport is known as one of the most dangerous airports in the world,” Julie noted, “and it did not disappoint. The planes only fly as high as the mountain ranges, and the runway in Lukla is right on a cliff and ends in a rock wall. Not scary at all. After a nail-biting flight and landing, we arrived ... ”

Next week, the treacherous hike from Lukla to Everest Base Camp. (Photo: Julie Clouser)