Lobuche
4,940 m
Lukla
2,845 m
22 mins
7:30 AM
$500
per seat
$1,500
aircraft
Khumbu, Everest region
Lobuche
Lobuche is a handful of lodges pressed against the western moraine of the Khumbu Glacier at 4,940 metres. It is cold, it is thin, and for many trekkers it is the last comfortable night before the push to Gorakshep and base camp.
It is also where the Everest Base Camp trek stops being a walk and becomes an endurance problem. The stretch from Lobuche to Gorakshep crosses boulder fields and glacial moraine at around five thousand metres, and the return leg is the one people most often decide not to do on foot.
Payload at five thousand metres
A single-engine helicopter loses useful load as altitude and temperature rise. At Lobuche that limit is real rather than theoretical. On a warm afternoon an aircraft that carries five people out of Lukla may only be able to lift two from here, and it may need to make a second trip or stage through a lower pad to refuel.
We explain this before you book rather than after you have paid, because the alternative is a conversation on the pad in front of a group that has already divided its baggage.
Flights from Lobuche
We run a short leg to Lukla and a direct flight to Kathmandu. Both are morning departures. Afternoon operations from Lobuche are rare and we generally decline them.
01Departing
Flights out of Lobuche
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