Gorakshep
5,164 m
Gokyo
4,790 m
15 mins
8:00 AM
$500
per seat
On request
aircraft
Khumbu, Everest region
Gorakshep
Gorakshep is four lodges on a flat sandy lake bed at 5,164 metres, an hour and a half below Everest Base Camp and directly beneath Kala Patthar. Nobody lives here permanently. In season it is full, and by the second week of November it is shut.
For the helicopter business, Gorakshep is the single most important pad in Nepal. It is where the Everest Base Camp trek turns around, and it is where a large proportion of trekkers decide that eight days of walking back down is not what they want to do with the rest of their trip.
Why people fly out from here
Three reasons, in order of frequency. They have run out of days and have a flight home. Their knees have had enough of descending. Or somebody in the group is unwell at five thousand metres and needs to be at fifteen hundred by lunchtime.
The flight to Lukla takes about twenty-five minutes and replaces three days on foot. The direct flight to Kathmandu takes a little over an hour and replaces four.
What flying from 5,164 metres actually involves
This is high for a single-engine helicopter carrying passengers. Aircraft usually arrive light, take two or three people, and drop to Pheriche or Lukla before continuing. If you have booked five seats out of Gorakshep, expect the group to be split. That is not an upsell. It is the aircraft telling the pilot what it can do that morning.
Cold
Morning temperatures here run well below freezing through the season. You will wait outside for the aircraft. Keep your down jacket out of the bag that is about to be loaded.
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Flights out of Gorakshep
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