New Heights. New Sights.

'Mountain Flight' to Mount Everest - June 2010

At 6:45 am on Tuesday the 8th of June, the propellors of the J-41 Turboprop kicked into high gear and we started scuttling down the runway. Within minutes, our Yeti Airlines 'Mountain Flight' was up in the air and breaking through the layer of dust and exhaust that lingers over Kathmandu this time of year.

Already making their presence known out of the left-hand windows of the aircraft, the daunting rock faces and glaciers of the Himalayas rose above us. The result of the Indo-Australian plate crashing into the Eurasian plate, this string of snow-capped mountains is the world's highest range and forms a natural barrier separating the hot plains of India from the highlands of the Tibetan plateau.

Straddling this dividing line, Nepal contains one third of the Himalayan system within its borders, including Mount Everest - the highest peak on the planet. At 29,000 feet, it is more than twice the height of Mt. Kinabalu and one challenge that this cat will not be seeking to conquer. While I would like to hike around the area some day, the blue-tinted windows of the airplane are likely the closest I'll get to seeing the summit in person.

As stunning as Everest was, it was but one of the many jaw-droppingly-incredible sights Nepal had to offer.

Following the Mountain Flight, we went on to the ancient royal city of Bhaktapur and then took motorcycles out to explore all around the Kathmandu Valley. In the days to come, we would find ourselves a stone's throw away from the Indian border in the Southern Terai and enjoying the fresh hill country air of Ilam, home to tea as delicious as that grown a few kilometers away in neighboring Darjeeling.

Really, it was all too much to take in during such a short time, let alone to try and describe.

Hoping that photographs might pick up where words fail, I've posted pictures from the trip online. To see them, simply go to the 'Nepal' photo album on the right or click here.