HIMALAYA HELICOPTER EXPEDITION
[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on September 2, 2016. I designed and led the first Himalaya Helicopter Expedition or HHE the previous May, which nobody had even thought of doing before, much less done it. Now it’s eight years later and we’ve successfully completed 9 HHEs with a perfect safety record. This Fall will be our 10th. As you may know, I’m 80 and still going strong, but this will be my last. Here’s the full info: Himalaya Helicopter Expedition October 26-November 2, 2024.
I have two spaces left. This really is one of the most uniquely glorious experiences on our planet, and you can make it an indelible part of your life. Just normal good health, no trekking nor special skills, needed. Carpe diem. The opportunity is now and not the tomorrow that never comes.]
TTP, September 2, 2016
Mountaineers call the highest mountains in the world achttausenders, German for “eight-thousanders,” mountains over 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) high. There are 14 of them on the Roof of the World (nowhere else) and they are the most magnificent mountains on earth. To be in the presence of any one of them is a life-memorable experience.
To reach any one, you must trek for many days, over extremely rough mountainous terrain at very high altitude. You must be in exceptional physical condition to do so.
It takes weeks to reach Concordia, for example, the concordance of giant glaciers at which is the base camp for K2 and three other 8,000ers in the Karakorum mountains of northern Pakistan.
In 2006, I was able to create an alternative, leading the first and to this day only helicopter expedition to the Concordia base camp of K2, to stand in awe with K2, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and Broad Peak towering above. I wrote about it in TTP: Concordia (July, 2006).
However, as you can see in the map, the majority of 8,000ers are in the Himalayas of Nepal – 8 in all, with Shisha Pangma just across the border in Chinese Tibet. To trek to the base camp of any of these 8 – Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Kanchenjunga, Manaslu, Annapurna, and Dhaulagiri – is a major undertaking of extreme physical effort, time, and money. Each are ultimates of Himalayan trekking.
Which is why almost no one, even the most ambitious trekker, has ever been to all of them. Three months ago last May, I was again able to create an alternative: to the base camps of all eight 8,000 meter peaks in Nepal by helicopter, piloted by the most experienced mountain rescue pilots in the world.
Here’s our high altitude AS350 B3 coming in to land at the Khumbu Ice Fall on Mount Everest at 17,500 ft.
Can you imagine what it’s like to actually be at Mount Everest? Or Kanchenjunga, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri or Manaslu?
Kanchenjunga North Face – 8,586 meters/28,169 ft
Annapurna Northwest Face– 8,091 meters/26,540 ft
Dhaulagiri North Face – 8,167 meters/26,788 ft
Manaslu North Face – 8,168 meters/26,792 ft
Well, you don’t have to imagine, for you can be there yourself – with me in November. What we did in May was so astoundingly spectacular I can’t resist doing it again.
And if it’s not enough to get up close and personal with the highest mountains in the Himalayas, we also have a special permit to reach the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, the last place of true traditional Tibetan culture on earth, by helicopter.
Our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition is beyond question the greatest helicopter experience on the planet now, an absolutely unique world-class adventure.
You need only be in normal good health. There’s no climbing or trekking. You’ll have your own personal oxygen bottle when at altitude.
If you would like to have such an extraordinary life-memorable experience be a part of your life, let me know and I’ll send you all the info, details, maps, and lots more photos. Just email me: [email protected].
Meanwhile, visualize yourself standing here, as we were last May, at the base of Dhaulagiri. That’s where you’ll be in October.
Life is short – the time for a Great Adventure is now. [email protected]