After spending a week in Kathmandu, we flew to Lukla, Nepal on a twin prop with about 20 other trekkers on March 27th, 2010. Lukla is the start of the Trek to Mt. Everest Base camp, and our goal - Kala Pattar (2,000 feet above base camp) . The ridge called Kala Pattar sports probably the best view in the world of Everest and the massive peaks surrounding it. Because it is located in a valley, there is no view of Everest from base camp.
Lukla stands on the side of a mountain at 9,380 ft / 2860 .
Kala Pattar - our final destination - sits at 18,192 ft / 5,545 m.
So we hiked about 8,800 vertical feet. (about 1.7 vertical miles).
Above 15,000 feet the diminished oxygen makes hiking very difficult and slow.
There is about 50% of the oxygen at Kala Pattar that you would have at sea level. And since we live in Portland, where the elevation is officially listed as 50 feet, we fully experienced lack of air up high. So we read up, and took recommended precautions such as a slow ascent, to reduce the chances of suffering AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). In hindsite, it looks like we should have moved up the mountain even slower.
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