Chaos in Kathmandu

Arriving in Kathmandu I was very grateful that I was part of a group. Andy, the leader, told us that we shouldn’t tip anyone, which has already proved useful advice – as we pushed our trolleys towards the bus we were approached by “porters” who asked “Are you part of the Jagged Globe group?” then whisked our trolleys away, only to demand payment a hundred metres later at the bus.

There were others begging, but using a tactic I hadn’t seen before: rather than just asking for money they offered £4.50 (in sterling) and asked for a £5 note.

Kathmandu is a pretty crazy place at the best of times. Once you’ve escaped the airport you’re thrown into the most noisy and disorganised traffic system on the planet. Then while you’re crawling along in the inevitable traffic jam, feeling the initial irritation caused by the clouds of smog you’re inhaling, you watch the half-built buildings clad in precariously bendy bamboo-scaffolding, the modern glass office blocks and the slums in between them going by.

The Summit Hotel is slightly south of the main chaos, in Patan, and in total contrast to the rest of Kathmandu, is calm, quiet and peaceful – even the air seems cleaner. We were supposed to leave here in the early hours of this morning to fly to Lukla, but it’s currently raining there and the airport is closed, so the group is relaxing in the garden of the hotel, discussing snow leopards and gradually getting to know each other.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla is rated as the most dangerous in the world. Its runway is 460m long and has a gradient of 12%. At the bottom of the runway the hillside drops hundreds of metres down into the Dudh Kosi valley, while at the top there’s a big stone wall holding up the hillside. Unfortunately the weather at the moment is not conducive to safe arrivals, as Lukla doesn’t have any landing aids – if you can’t see the runway, you can’t land. We’ve been getting hourly updates all morning, but apparently the rain is still falling and there haven’t been any flights, so we’re staying here for the moment and ordering lunch.

Andy doesn’t seem too worried about losing a day. Our schedule has a couple of bad weather days built into it, so if the weather is OK after this then we may still be able to fit the whole itinerary in. We’re supposed to walk for a few hours this afternoon but it’s already too late for that, so it doesn’t make much difference now whether we fly later today or tomorrow morning.

The group seems pretty friendly. They’re an interesting mix, but mainly blokes in their 30s and 40s. So far the group has been quite quiet, but it’s early days so we’ll see how things develop. There are some pretty experienced climbers in the team: Andy has lead 28 trips for Jagged Globe, been in the mountain rescue in the UK and spent 2½ years with the BAS in the Antarctic, a Scottish guy called Mark has climbed in the Alps, the Andes and all over Africa, and there’s a young couple from Fulham who seem quite experienced too. There’s a guy called Dave who’s been out here several times before and seems to know the area well – he and Mark are pouring over a map trying to work out where we’re heading.