A Flight to Mount Everest + World’s Most Dangerous Airport - Lukla

I'm going to fly on this black helicopter behind me to the Mount Everest. First stop is the world's most dangerous airport, Niplah. The land is 17,000 feet. This is the highest I've ever been in my life. I'm on some oxygen. So our captain actually received a rescue call. He's going back to rescue someone down. Once in a lifetime experience. So our helicopter was one of the first to take off at sunrise. There's only a small window of season to do this. I recommend to go in April or October when the weather is at its clearest and not that cold. Just saw the beautiful sunrise. And it's about 40 minutes flight. The first stop is the world's most dangerous airport, Niplah. I have Captain Vijay Lama here and my friend, Dr. Andreas from Switzerland. Lukla is the gateway to Mount Everest, but there's no road. So no car can get to Lukla. A flight to Lukla is 25 minutes on fixed wing aeroplane or 40 minutes by helicopter. We arrived there at 7am. Today we flew from Kathmandu to Lukla. The Kathmandu airport elevation was 4,400 feet. And then we gradually climb up to 1,500 feet. The elevation of Lukla is 9,200 feet. You remember, we watched Mount Everest, Makalu, Kanchenjunga and Nupsi also. Yes, we saw lots of great mountains. It was very easy to see it from helicopter. What a beautiful ride. It was crazy. All the mountains were so close proximity. 10 years ago, I was here in Lukla on a fixed wing. Today we flew the helicopter. We're going to have a stop here, refuelling before we climb further. Here's Captain Vijay Lama. We met on the Nepal airline flight. He saved my ass. He brought me a nice cold jacket because it is getting cold here. It is cold. And it's going to get colder when we up there. Yeah. Look, another helicopter approaching here. Wow. That landing was a precision landing. If he touched down anything later, he's not going to make it. He's going to crash into the stone wall at the end. Yes. Crazy. Yeah. That's how I remember Lukla. It was so exciting. So many helicopters. Just got back to our helicopter, ready for our next journey up. Mount Everest is the one with a sharp peak with snow blowing at the top. We were almost at 20,000 feet, but Mount Everest stood really tall from where our helicopter was. We were trying to get up to Camp 2 of Mount Everest, which is the absolute limits of the helicopter. We just landed here, 17,000 feet. And I'm feeling a little bit of mountain sickness. I need oxygen. So the helicopter actually got oxygen supply. This is the highest altitude I've ever been. It's unbelievable here. The helicopter usually stay at Kalapatar for five minutes. I was so frantically taking photo and video, it started to run out of oxygen. So I got back on the helicopter to head to a lower altitude. Our next stop is the pristine Gokyo Lake. The scenery on this lake is the most amazing. It really amazed me how close we fly to those mountain terrains. Right now, exactly. We are in Gokyo, right? Gokyo Lake. The Gokyo Lake. Gokyo Lake. And it's about 15,000 plus. We just came down to Kalapatar. And awesome experience, I think. So I was feeling a little bit short of breath when we are at 18,000 and I was on oxygen for a while. But now we come down to 3,000 feet down. Instantly felt better. So whenever you come here, you have to know how to acclimatise also. If you don't, then you have a lot of problems. But when you fly in a helicopter, there's no problem. You are there. You can always come down. Hi! You are great! You are climbing 70,000 feet. Are you 18? That's on your pass. Welcome to the Gokyo Lake. And before, we climbed almost 20,000 feet That time, you took oxygen. I thought that you are a little bit, you know, we get down here. Now you are perfect. You are happy and excited. And we landed here, beautiful lake of Gokyo. And you saw there is a biggest glacier. That is the biggest glacier of the world. Our next stop is to the world's highest hotel, Hotel Everest View, for breakfast. Just we landed in Hotel Everest View. And the altitude is 12,500 feet. And now we have a breakfast. There you go. Only at 3,880 metre. What a view. Look at here, Mount Everest. It feels cold and it's smoking. It's smoking? Yeah, Mount Everest is smoking. Mount Everest is smoking there. Let's see. Yeah, it's glowing there. I think there is a strong wind. Okay, Sam. Early in the morning, when we went for mountain flight, we flew 20,000 feet. When I was circling between camp one and camp two, there was, you know, 20 knots down the valley wind. Therefore, I could not proceed even more because of the safety issue. Therefore, I make a circle and I get down. Kumbayas fall. Then I landed in Kalapatra. This is definitely the world's best view restaurant. How can you beat such a view of Mount Everest? This is definitely the highest breakfast I ever had, at 12,000 feet. And I think the food tastes better up here as well. I've been to Nepal before and I became a fan of the mountains because it's just so pure here and there's no pollution. And I've been studying about all the mountains, Lhotse, Choayo, Tantra Junga, Mount Everest, all the top eight out of 10 is in Nepal. And I got so much want to see and say here, but when I got here, I just want to be silent, just appreciate the beauty. And like Leonardo da Vinci say, right? When you taste flights, you will never walk the earth. You will always fly. And then flying up here, enjoying the mother nature at its very best. We're back at the helicopter capital of Nepal. The helicopter just come and goes. Every few minutes there is. So our captain actually received a rescue call. He's going back to rescue someone down and leaving us here. So we're doing some helicopter and fixed wing aeroplane spotting here. Straight onto the dock here. Have to mention that all the aeroplane has to land on the spot. There's no go around. If you land late, you might hit a stone wall at the end. And also if you take off, if you don't take off, you go down the cliff, right? This is one of the most dangerous airport. It was very hairy when I watched all the planes coming and going. It's taking a little chance, I think, every time here. But what a thrill. Aviation provide a lifeline to remote community here. There is no car. There's only aeroplanes and helicopters. The whole helicopter trip took about five hours. We stopped in Lukla, Kalapatar, which is Mount Everest, Everest View Hotel and Lukla again before going back to Kathmandu. The cost of doing it is about $1,200 per person sharing on the helicopter. Helicopter don't just bring tourists. They also bring cargo and bring down the sick and fatigued trekkers from the mountain on daily basis. Six hours later, made it back to Kathmandu. What an adventure. Once in a lifetime experience. Thanks for flying me, Captain Prakash. Welcome, sir. That was the greatest helicopter flight, up to 20,000 feet. So did everyone enjoy the Mount Everest experience? Yeah. Jai Chandrasekhar.