Amazing Everest Experience

There are certain things in life which are beyond our imagination. In simple words: if you haven’t experienced it, you have no inkling of what it’s like. One such experience is the Everest Flight. There are no words to describe how you feel when flying over the Himalaya; you are left in awe of the sheer magnitude of the mountain chain and its incredible beauty.

One begins to understand the real meaning of ‘fascinating’.

 

I took Yeti Airlines’ Flight OY-302, scheduled to take off at 6:45am. It’s in the early hours of the morning that the skies are clear and the mountains are visible in all their glory. There’s a certain cheer when

the attendant announces, “The weather is good and you are up next.”

 

Excitement builds up as the plane takes off, and immediately like magic, the mountains come into view.

The stewardess helps each passenger identify the various peaks as they pop up outside the window. “There’s Langtang,” she points out and I remember the time I had stood on top of Kyanjin Ri so close to Langtang Lirung (7,246m). There’s something about the snow-covered mountains that touches your heart; their serene beauty, that mysterious appeal and unmatched tranquility. You can see it in the faces of the passengers who gaze out the window lost in thought. The others don’t want to waste a second while they capture the breathtaking scenes with their cameras. The mountains get bigger as we fly eastwards toward the biggest of them all, Mt. Everest (8,848m). The kind stewardess patiently points out the different peaks, “That pointed one over there, that’s Gauri Shankar, and the one with the flat top, that’s Melungtse.” 

 

Everyone seems to hold a special reverence for Mt. Everest. The moment we are told the highest peak is coming up, there is heightened excitement within the plane. Passengers can now walk up to the cockpit in turns for an unmatched close-up view of this world famous peak. Awesome doesn’t quite describe the sight of Everest. What a glorious view! The pilot points out Everest and Lhotse (8,516m) and further eastward, the beautiful Kanchenjunga (8,586m), the third highest mountain in the world. Then one notices the row after row of endless mountains fading away into the horizon. It’s a whole different world out there with nothing but rock, ice and snow; that vast space uninhabited by living creatures. Down below us we see serene glacial lakes, glaciers and soft, silky snow that sit on top of the peaks like icing on a giant cake.

 

Some tourists are left speechless after such an experience and many sit in a daze, contemplating what they have just witnessed. It’s truly one of the wonders of nature and words like “fantastic, unbelievable” which they use to describe the scene don’t quite do justice to what they are feeling. At the end of the flight each passenger gets a shot of champagne. And to top it all off, all passengers receive certificates with their names on them to prove that they’ve been on this spectacular flight with Yeti Airlines called the Everest Flight, an unforgettable journey. One cannot quite find a better way to boast about a trip to the east than by saying, “I flew over the Himalaya, the highest mountains in the world.”