That's the feeling our Peak Freaks team felt today as they were lifted out of Kathmandu on the first twin otter this morning to Lukla. They were being pushed up the valley by killer cyclone Hudbud. An extremely severe cyclone moving up from the Bay of Bengal. Hudbud warranted 300,000 to be evacuated from eastern India and are reporting today that 24 people are now confirmed dead in that region.
All flights will be cancelled for several days as Hudbud passes over the Himalayas. Our team is hunkered down tonight in the village of Monjo at 2804m, just a 3 hour walk from Lukla. The rain is pounding hard tonight and communications are not possible. I received a very quick and broken signal around 12:45hrs NPT, they were moving fast to get to shelter and are all doing well.
This is not new to us. The same scenario came down on us last season as Peak Freaks got out on the last flight before cyclone Phailin hit on the exact same day- October 12th. What's the chances of Hudbud hitting the exact same day?
The aftermath of this storm will no doubt lay a significant amount of snow on the mountains and temperatures will dictate how it bonds to them.
Let the fun begin!
Becky Rippel
Triple Crown Expedition- Nepal
No comments:
Post a Comment