Lovely Lukla

10/28/2025….

Arriving in Lukla is a special kind of treat that I wish I could experience more often! Every 8+ years just doesn’t give you the “fix” it is worthy of.

This time around, I had the great pleasure of experiencing it via helicopter. With threatening storms in the forecast for our planned travel day (Tuesday), we had to call an audible and find a different way. Our fleet-footed, scrappy leader, Dan Mazur, scrambled to make the accommodations for all eight climbers still in Kathmandu to be able to travel last minute on Monday instead, avoiding the torrential downpour that I listen to now as I write this dispatch.

Breathtaking doesn’t do justice in explaining the chopper ride, especially as you near the village of Lukla perched at 9,334 ft. I only hope the video I share in this blog captured it for you all reading my ramblings. As we swung around on the final approach, I got a little misty. I was so fortunate to be riding shotgun. It’s an experience that is now deeply ingrained in my brain.

The second helicopter made it to Lukla a couple of hours behind us, followed eventually by all of our bags. It was a long day of waiting, but patience has paid off, and now we will depart Lukla later this morning (Tuesday, 10/28) as originally planned. This storm that is drenching us is predicted to last until Friday. We are all feeling very grateful to Dan and Summit Climb for making the necessary adjustments to ensure we are properly acclimated for Lobuche on Nov 4.

I will not have the luxury of posting a dispatch every day. Our schedule varies in the flexibility category. Summit Climb does a great job of listing our daily activities as well. Feel free to also follow their dispatch at www.summitclimb.com/news/recent/ama-dablam-news

My next posting will come to you from the village of Namche Bazar, topping out at 11,290 ft. The dance will continue from higher ground!