In response to a number of questions here is some more detail of the Island Peak expedition in the Himalayas last week....I was sitting in a hotel room in Mumbai - as you do - when the phone rang. It was Mark Wood from Lukla - it was also 05.30!
There had been a fatal plane crash. Our team (the Everest Base Camp expedition run by Mark's company - Snowball Expeditions) were not involved but there were 15 dead and the flights into and out of Lukla were all cancelled. There had already been enough bad weather to stop flights for the 10 days before and Mark wanted to get a note to his blog to reassure all people at home that all was well and the team would get out as soon as they could.
This was the start of a whirlwind 10 days of my own expedition to climb Island Peak in the Everest range.
Thank goodness that mu son (Tom) was safe and that the team were now in a lodge in Lukla on the final leg of their journey out of the Himalayas.
The next day I flew to Delhi and then to Kathmandu.
There remained a day of waiting but the team managed to get two aircraft out of Lukla in the afternoon of 26th August> There was a good deal of work to do to get the team out of KMD as although everyone had insurance cover - the insurers were less than helpful in many cases. Mark Kelly - one of my fellow explorers for Island Peak - and I sat in the reception of the team hotel with laptops and one after the other helped sort insurance and flights for the team to get away. By later evening we had everyone sorted with a few stragglers dealt with the next day.
It wasn't over though.... After seeing Tom off on his early morning flight on the 28th one of the team members (Lizzy) called from the departure lounge of the airport. She had fainted and cracked her head on the way down - there was blood everywhere and the airline were refusing to let her fly! Mark Kelly and Pete Bradley (our medic for Island Peak) rushed off to take her to hospital which Mark Wood and I got the remaining team members away... and we hadn't even got our flights out sorted yet!
The next 24hours consisted of hospital visits, Mark K and Pete flying round KMD in an ambulance with sirens and everything dealing with Lizzy and then... eventually Lizzy booked on a flight - with the (poor) help of her insurers. I had spend a good deal of time on the web and the phone working with Lizzy, doctors, insurers and airlines to help get her away.... Now we could turn to our own adventure!
We had booked a flight the next day (already a day behind on our already tight schedule) and duely arrived at the alloted hour (06.00) at the airport ready to go. After 4 hours of delay they canceled the flights to Lukla for the day! We returned to the hotel frustrated and fed up. We then retired to our haven of quiet in the hubub of Kathmandu - a smoothie and coffee bar in Mandeala Street - which would have not looked out of place in central London or Manhatten!
A number of cappuchinos and banana smoothies later and we decided to try again the next day....
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