Lukla
A Sherpa village at 2,860 metres where most people bound for Everest step off a small plane, onto a runway 527 metres long that climbs the hill at almost twelve per cent.
- Arrival
- Tenzing-Hillary Airport · LUA
- To Namche Bazaar
- About 18 km north, two days on foot
- Private jets
- To KTM, then a short-take-off plane
- Best time
- March to April · October to November
The city
At the foot of the Khumbu.
Lukla belongs to the Khumbu Pasanglhamu municipality of Solukhumbu, in the north-east of Nepal. Its main street is lodges and shops selling western meals and trail kit, and the name is said to mean a place of many goats and sheep, though you will see few of either. From here the path follows the Dudh Kosi north to Namche Bazaar, two days away, where walkers stop to acclimatise.
Lukla stands at the lower edge of the Sagarmatha National Park's buffer zone. The park dates from 1976 and joined the UNESCO list in 1979; inside it are Everest, at 8,848 metres, seven more summits above 7,000 metres, snow leopards and red pandas, and Sherpa villages settled for some four hundred years. In the Nepali year 2080/81 the park counted 48,804 foreign visitors.
- Tenzing-Hillary Airport Laid out in 1964 by Edmund Hillary on land he bought from Sherpa owners for 2,650 dollars, paved in 2001 and named after him and Tenzing Norgay in 2008.
- Namche Bazaar The main village of the national park, 18 kilometres up the valley, where the trail pauses for acclimatisation.
- Gokyo Lake A high lake inside the park, listed as a Ramsar wetland in 2007.
Arriving
Twelve per cent uphill.
The strip lies at about 2,845 metres: 527 metres of asphalt, 30 metres wide, rising at a gradient of 11.7 per cent. Aircraft land at one end and take off from the other, there is no way to go around, and the field shuts the moment cloud rules out a visual landing, which in the monsoon is about half the time.
- Delhi 1 h 35
- Mumbai 2 h 35
- Beijing 4 h 15
- Singapore 4 h 50
- Lisbon 11 h 25 long-range jet
When to go
March to April, and October to November.
Figures from the airport's own weather station. From November to February under 40 mm of rain falls in all, while August alone takes more than 640 mm. Afternoons run from about 8 °C in January to 19 °C in late summer, and the tourism board points walkers to spring and to the clear weeks after the monsoon.
- 8° J 15
- 9° F 17
- 13° M 45
- 17° A 59
- 17° M 128
- 18° J 325
- 18° J 530
- 19° A 642
- 19° S 419
- 17° O 103
- 14° N 6
- 11° D 1
Elsewhere in Nepal
More reasons to come.
- Kathmandu Durbar Square, the stupa of Boudhanath, and the old royal cities of the valley.
- Bhaktapur A royal city of pagodas and potters, twenty minutes from Kathmandu.
- Pokhara A lake beneath the Annapurnas.
- Jomsom The arid valley of the Kali Gandaki, reached by a mountain airstrip.
- Chitwan Rhinos and tigers in the forests of the Terai.
Flying to Lukla?
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A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.