Emotional, Yet Thrilling Goodbye

Judy and I finally said our goodbyes on April 14th.  A storm had recently dumped about 10 inches of snow here at Base Camp, so our goodbye was much different from the one I envisioned.  Greg Vernovage, the leader of the expedition, deemed the trek out as unsafe due to the extreme icy conditions.  Greg arranged for Judy and four other trekkers in our group to be taken by helicopter from EBC to Lukla for a reasonable fee.  Getting Judy out this way had been a back up plan all along due to her knee issues, but going alone would have been much more expensive.  And she probably wouldn’t have had the company of her fellow trekkers.

If you remember, Lukla is about 9,300 feet and Base Camp is about 17,500 feet.  From Lukla, Judy’s group boarded a fixed-wing plane to Kathmandu.  Believe it or not she was taking a hot shower at the Hotel Tibet within three and a half hours of kissing me goodbye!

Though parting was obviously emotional for both of us, having Judy fly out versus trekking out actually reduced both or our stress levels, which seemed to soften the sadness we’d both anticipated.  So, with moist eyes and while trying to avoid the spindrift from the helicopter blades, I did my best to video the liftoff.  I then watched her helicopter head down the Khumbu Valley, gradually disappearing into the beautiful Himalayan skyline.  Although our goodbye was different from the one I imagined, it was fun and maybe a little bit romantic, and really all I could have asked for!

As for me, I started the five-hour trek on the slippery trail to Lobuche Base Camp to prepare for tomorrow’s potential summit of Lobuche at 20,000 feet.