Everest Base Camp trek – flight problems 2019

Most hiking the Everest region in Nepal fly into and/or out of Lukla, a small village at 2,860 metres (9,383 ft).

You can walk in and/or out, but that requires a lot more time.

In order to ease congestion at Tribhuvan International Airport (in Kathmandu) and facilitate ongoing runway repair works … Lukla flights were rerouted to fly from Manthali.

An airport that had barely seen a dozen flights in the last decade began to handle 85 flights daily, and it was ill-equipped to deal with the hundreds of tourists arriving daily. The airport lacks proper parking, a waiting room, toilets and even a restaurant.

More than 800 tourists arrive and depart daily during peak season. About 85 flights a day.

For Everest enthusiasts, an unpleasant experience awaits at Manthali airport (Nov 15, 2019)

It’s 132km (82mi) from Thamel, Kathmandu to the airport. That’s at least a a four-hour drive IF there are no delays. You leave Kathmandu around 2am.

Know that there are still a couple of Lukla flights departing Kathmandu airport after 8am each day. But it’s risky to buy that ticket as your flight might be cancelled.

Flights out of Ramechhap airport at Manthali — however — are shorter, cheaper and more reliably get you to Lukla.

The international airport in Kathmandu is terrible. Current renovations won’t help much.

The planned (2025) replacement will be situated 150kms from Kathmandu by road.

Two other new airports already under construction should help relieve traffic: Pokhara International Airport (opening 2021) and Gautam Buddha Airport. (opening 2020) should help.

I’ll try to fly into Pokhara in future. We should avoid polluted Kathmandu, if we can.

October 23, 2018October 22, 2018

we need more diversity in outdoor sport

My favourite gear shop — Mountain Equipment Co-op — got called out by one of their members.

She was right.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

To their credit, MEC responded. Here’s their CEO:

Do white people dominate the outdoors?

Let that question sink in for a moment. If you consider every advertisement you’ve ever seen for skiing, hiking, climbing and camping, you might think that’s the case.

… White athletes hold the spotlight in advertising, while the diversity that exists and continues to grow in outdoor spaces isn’t represented in the images we produce and promote. The truth is that we haven’t represented the diversity of Canadians or of our 5 million members.
We’ve let our members down.

We can’t move forward until we acknowledge our past. Historically, the models we’ve used in our catalogues and campaigns and on mec.ca have been predominantly white. And this imagery has perpetuated the vastly incorrect notion that people of colour in Canada don’t ski, hike, climb or camp.

This letter is about recognizing the role we’ve played in underrepresenting people of colour in the outdoors, and committing to change. It’s not OK.

As CEO of MEC, I promise that moving forward, we will make sure we’re inspiring and representing the diverse community that already exists in the outdoors.

This initiative isn’t about patting ourselves on the back. It’s also not about me, another straight white male with a voice in the outdoor industry. This is a conscious decision to change, and to challenge our industry partners to do the same. We know we’ve been part of the problem, and we’re committed to learning from our mistakes and changing the way we represent the outdoor community.

Outside is for everyone. It’s time we acted like it.

Check their new Diversity page. I’m proud to be a member and loyal customer of MEC.

February 20, 2017

Outdoor Retailers QUIT Utah – cost $500 million

Utah will lose half a billion dollars from the five planned shows — the three annual shows and the industry’s smaller “grass-roots” show for new innovations that were scheduled right before two of the annual shows. That will hit hotel owners, restaurants and other sectors of the service industry hard.

It also loses any shot of landing the Interbike trade show, the largest cycling show in North America, that had been aggressively courted by Salt Lake City and would have brought with it an economic impact of about $22 million a year in direct spending by attendees. Its contract with Las Vegas expires in 2018, but organizers now say they have zero interest in coming to Utah, again because of its hostile public lands policies. …

Salt Lake City Tribune

Utah Governor Gary Herbert (@GovHerbert) and the Republican State government are bad for business. They don’t support outdoor recreation.

Boycott that State, if you can. Oregon would LOVE to host.

February 4, 2017February 6, 2017

hiking the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico

trip report by site editor Rick McCharles

You’ve heard of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.

It’s adjacent to the Gila Wilderness.

Gila Wilderness was designated the world’s first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. … part of New Mexico’s Gila National Forest. …

The Mogollon Mountains traverse an arc across the wilderness. The tallest peak within this range, Whitewater Baldy at 10,895 ft (3,321 m) …

I headed for the most popular Baldy trailhead – Crest Trail #182.

I never made it due to mountain road improvements January 2017. ROAD CLOSED.

So I read some of the Peakbagger trip reports instead.

The consensus was not good: bad roads, snow into July, forest fire recovery sections, hunters. It will not go on our list of the best hikes in North America.

The most popular hike in Gila Wilderness is the Catwalk – “… a one-mile trail suspended above a rushing stream in a gorge only a few feet wide.”

It had been rebuilt over a period of 2 years costing over $4.4 million dollars. And opened again in 2016.

I’d been advised by a Ranger that only the catwalk part of the trail was open. Hikers often continue on to #207. I would have wild camped if it had been open.

Sadly, that Ranger was wrong. It was all closed due to flooding.

Still, the Catwalk does look very cool.

The 1.1-mile Catwalk National Recreation Trail winds through the canyon’s steep, pink walls of volcanic rock, following the path of a pipeline built in the early 1890s to provide water and electricity for the mining town of Graham. …

Desert USA

LESSON LEARNED — Before driving out to hike the Gila Wilderness, phone first to be sure your trail is open.

January 17, 2017January 15, 2017

boycott Utah

Support Patagonia and Black Diamond.

The company this week threatened to pull out of Salt Lake City’s biannual Outdoor Retailer Show, a trade show that brings in 45,000 visitors spending more than $40 million each year. …

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) vowed to sue the White House last month after Obama set aside 1.35 million acres, including sacred tribal lands, to become Bears Ears National Monument. The Navajo Nation and conservationists alike hailed the designation as a victory. But Reyes, later joined by the state’s Republican governor and lawmakers in Washington, D.C., denounced the move …

Patagonia Is Gearing Up For War With Utah Republicans Over National Monument

Most Republicans in the USA seek to sell of public lands to the highest bidder. 😦

December 24, 2016

U.S. Sr Parks fees go up. Canada free in 2017.

National Parks Traveller – UPDATED: Price Of Senior Pass Going To $80; Buy It Now For $10

Canada’s National Parks Are Free in 2017:

In honor of Canada’s 150th birthday, all 47 of Canada’s diverse national parks will offer free Discovery Passes for any and all visitors—Canadian or otherwise …

December 17, 2015December 14, 2015

Decline of Mountain Equipment Co-op

Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op has offered the best shopping for hikers for decades. I’d argue it’s still the best hiking shop in the world.

But anyone in one of their stores in 2015 would concur it’s not as good as it once was. The staff is much younger and less experienced in the wild than in the past. Prices are higher. There’s too high a percentage of yuppie, urban crap on the shelves.

Outdoor gear for city folks who have no intention of going to any mountains. Click through to Canadian Business magazine for a history of the change through to 2013.