The small town of Pheriche at an altitude of 2,600 meters
According to the previous plan, after arriving in Lukla, the team members' equipment will be carried by local Sherpas and transported to Everest Base Camp entirely by manpower. The team members will gradually acclimatize by advancing at a pace of 5 to 6 kilometers per day.
Lukla is a mandatory stop on the way to Everest Base Camp. The area’s famously named Lukla Hillary Airport, named after New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Everest, is built halfway up a mountainside, with a runway only 400 meters long, ranking as the most dangerous airport among the world’s top ten.
For safety reasons, the team members took a helicopter this time. Mei Zi, the leader of the climbing team, said that the upcoming journey will be very challenging, requiring team members to wake up on time every day and proceed to the next stop along the planned route.
Meanwhile, as the communications and power supply expert for the climbing team, Ou Jianzhong has already gone ahead to Everest Base Camp to set up antennas and begin debugging the relevant equipment.
Tips:
Sherpas (also known as Xueba or Xie'erba) are a mountain-dwelling ethnic group from Nepal and India, renowned as the "porters of the Himalayas."