Mt. Everest!

Getting close to Everest with the airplane wing for perspective!



Even closer. This was the best picture we got of Mt. Everest.



Looking over the propeller at the Himalayas before we saw Everest.



George, Krissy and Geo after our fabulous flight experience. This was my first flight on such a small plane!


Today we saw something I never thought I'd see in my entire life: Sagarmatha (in Nepali), or Chomolungma (in Tibetan) aka Mt. Everest (in English). I have to say, it would be really silly to come to Nepal and not see the tallest mountain the world. Since we were here only for 3 days, the only way we could do this was with a scenic mountain flight. We paid about $130 USD for the experience. The flight was a little more than an hour delayed, not really sure why. But the domestic flight terminal in Kathmandu is an adventure in itself. We were in our taxi at 6:45 this morning and the plane finally took off around 9:15. We were back on the ground by 10:15. We flew within a few miles of Mt. Everest (I think it's the south face of the mountain). Kathmandu City was really hazy today. I'm not sure if it's dust or pollution or something else that makes the sky over the valley so brown. But above the clouds the sky was a very pretty shade of blue. I imagine on a clear day the flight would be spectacular. Not being able to see the true height of the mountains made it hard to get the full WOW! factor. But we got a good sense for the size of the Himalayan Range, to be sure. Almost every peak in the range we saw was over 20,000 ft. Mt. Everest is officially 29,028 ft (8848 M). That number does make my head spin. Our flight elevation was about 25,000 ft. As our certificates from Buddha Air say, "I did not climb Mt Everest...but touched it with my heart!" A bit sentimental, but fitting for "the best mountain flight in the world." A nice reason to get up early in the morning :)