My trek to Everest Base Camp - Part 16

We when got in to Lukla on November 2^nd – there had been no flights for three days. There was panic, chaos and very little information from any official source. Rumors were treated as facts and facts confused with rumors. 

The airlines were also short staffed in Lukla and had very little direction to provide. And people were left to their own devices.

With 300 people coming in from the trail every day, everybody worried that the situation in Lukla would deteriorate. How would the 3 airlines –with a handful of 15 seater aircrafts – handle the entire backlog. And with no supplies coming in from Kathmandu, would food and other essentials begin to run out ?

We met a fistful of desparates each  day who decided that they would rather make the six day trek to Jiri than be at weather’s mercy. The trek to Jiri was hard – it was filled with intense ascents and descents. And the damp weather with short bursts of drizzling/rain would have made the path slippery. For us, this was a non-option.

The only other option that was initially treated as a rumor – was the chartered helicopter option from Surkhe. Surkhe was – for the normal trekker – a 45 minute trail from Lukla. In the initial days, the going rate was USD 300 per seat on the 10-15 seater heli.

 Our gang was skeptical about this option, at first. If there was no visibility at Lukla, why would things be better at Surkhe? And who knew where the passengers were dropped off ? What if they were dumped in some little village in the plains and had to find their way back to Kathmandu themselves? It seemed like a classic profiteering racket.

But, over the next couple of days, it became clear that the Surkhe option worked. And more and more people began to consider it seriously. And so, the prices for the helicopter ride began to climb as well - reaching 500-600 dollars very quickly.

But even with money, getting on the helicopter was not straight-forward. You could not go to a counter labeled ‘Helicopter to Kathmandu’ and buy your tickets! There were touts selling seats on the Helicopter. Silently. You needed to find these hidden people. And/or you needed a well-placed person in Kathmandu to recommend you for a seat. Many of the large tour agencies, blocked seats for their stranded customers and –often the pilot arrived with the list of passengers who would be let in.  But even with that, there was pushing and pulling and even a stampede to get into the helicopter. Over just a couple of days, the situation got so bad, so quickly, local cops got involved. There were stories of cops beating up people and imprisioning some guides. Mohammed visited Surkhe once, just for a lark, and came back with the gory stories.

Unappetizing as it was, Surkhe provided the only exit from Lukla. For the time being.

After one day of doing nothing, Ajit had begun to get the jitters. He needed to find us a way to get out, he decided. Our travel agent Kedar did not seem to be of much help in this situation, at least in the beginning. So Ajit decided to pull his weight. And some strings. His company’s distributor in Nepal was a prominent business family that also had links to the military. Ajit began to chase them with the ferociousness of a hungry hyena. Could they get an army helicopter to fetch us and a few others (Ha Ha. No. Army would not intervene, yet.) Could they at least get us seats on the Surkhe Helicopter ? (They tried. They could not.) Now it was up to the family to prove its Prominence. And Connections. Ajit had put them to the test. And questioned their capability!. Nothing like a challenge to the ego, to get people going. Or maybe it was the goodness of their heart.

They worked hard and found a link into Agni Airlines – our airline. And they found a serpentine connection to Mr. Finju – the local Lukla rep for Agni airlines. Ajit decided, he would not take any chances. In addition to the phone-calls raining on Finju from Kathmandu, he would have the misfortune of seeing Ajit’s face staring at him every afternoon. Asking, and eventually just pleading assistance. Finju had no reason to help us. He had hundreds of stranded passengers and he would follow due process. Besides, there was nothing to be done  till the clouds cleared, anyways.

I don’t blame him. If I were him, I would have used the pressure from Kathmandu as a sure disqualifier.

Our gang was mostly relaxed for the 1^st couple of days. Our scheduled flight from Lukla was only on 5^th and we were not worried about the onward flight. We would get it for sure. Dirk and Cas had their international flight on Sunday, 6^th. Mohammed had already missed his, so he was in no hurry to get out. And Sheena, well she was an airhostess. She would find a way out of Kathmandu surely.

But after the 1^st couple of days, Cas began to get even quieter. He began to disappear for long periods of time. We had no idea what he was up to, but as we all suddenly discovered on the morning of Sunday the 6^th –after 4 days of waiting for the clouds to stop squatting on our heads– Dirk and Cas had bought tickets for the helicopter and -after a quick goodbye -they were gone.

Dirk’s and Cas’s departure brought home our situation more clearly. We had already missed our scheduled flights, but wanted to leave desparately as well. The clock was ticking to Trayi’s birthday and it now seemed for sure that we would not make it. This was getting to be a dirty -long - never-ending wait.