Bhutan, Nepal & the Mystical Himalayas
October 5-27, 2011
NEPAL - October 13-27, 2011
Page Three - Mt. Everest Flight
While staying in Kathmandu, we had the option of paying for a special flight to see Mt. Everest on a small plane operated by Yeti Airlines. Although I
had already seen Mt. Everest twice on the flights to and from Bhutan, I wanted to see it as often as I could, plus everyone had a window seat on this plane.
Here is a view of the Himalayas as we started to see them above the clouds after rising above
the pollution
and fog in Kathmandu and flying east.
There were more clouds around the mountains than we had seen on the previous flights.
This is Melungtse, elevation 23,560 feet. Melungtse lies just north of the Nepal/China border. It was off limits to climbing for a long time, due to the
sacred
regard that Nepalese and Tibetans hold for it. It is a difficult climb and has not been climbed often.
A more distant view of Melungtse, with Gauri Shankar (23,406 ft) hidden in clouds to the left
Majestic Melungtse again
Mt. Everest summit largely hidden by clouds, with the Lhotse summit to the right, also hidden in clouds. Mt Everest or Sagarmatha is 29,029 feet high;
Lhotse is 27,940 ft, the 4th highest mountain in the world.
Lhotse summit is now visible, as is Nuptse, the ridge to the left, but Everest is still in clouds.
Clouds starting to part on Mt Everest
Distant view of Mt Everest in the center of the photo. The 5th highest mountain in the world, Makalu,
is the pointed mountain to the right of Everest, with an elevation of 27,838 ft. A closeup view of Makalu is shown on Page One of my Nepal photos.
Everest above the clouds
Pumori, elevation 23,494, is the pointed mountain to the left of Everest
This photo of Mt Everest was taken during the brief time I was in the cockpit with the pilots
This is the head on view of the pilots from the cockpit as we were passing by Mt Everest to the right
The plane was now heading back to Kathmandu the same way we had come, so the following photos were taken from the right side of the plane, and
the sun had risen higher in the sky, and the mountains looked somewhat different than from the left side during the first part of the flight.
You can see the
difference in lighting between this photo and the one above that was taken from the cockpit.
Melungtse again
Gauri Shankar still in clouds
Link to Page Four - Kathmandu and Bhaktapur
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