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The flight back to Kathmandu was great. I had already enjoyed the uphill landing at the mountain airstrip at Lukla, taking off was at least as spectacular. The plane taxied to the start, nose pointing downwards. Then it used full throttle and at max power, released its brakes and we shot forward, leaving the runway, just before it ended and flew back to KTM between green hills filled with terraces and villages.

That day I picked up Milan and Kevin from the airport. I thought they might be in trouble as they had not come out of the building one hour after landing, but in the end it turned out that they had been filming inside the Jet Airways plane and everything was fine. That is until we discovered back in the hotel that one Peli Case was missing! Seems I am not the only one who loses stuff in strange places

We had to go back but all counters and offices were closed.
But the next day our strong Peli Case, filled with TNF sunglasses for the team and Sherpas was still undamaged and we had everything back.

The next days were mainly fi

lled with picking up other teammembers at the airport, up to 4-5 trips per day. As you know, the 7-party strike was superceded by the King’s curfew, which made it all both harder and easier. We were stopped at every street corner, but the streets were completely empty, no other cars on the road, so in the end it was quite quick.

Only when Lorenzo’s brother Guiseppe (Pino) was missing we got into trouble as the permit had expired and we really had to explain every 100 meters in the dark streets of KTM…
The strike and curfew have made life a lot harder here. Not just for us as it is very difficult to even send out emails and get laundry and supply shopping done, but much more for the Nepali who have to have their shops shut, during busy season..