During the COVID shutdowns I had doubts whether I would ever visit Nepal again which was rather depressing. One of the regrets I had, was not doing a helicopter tour of the Khumbu area. Helicopter flyovers provide a completely different perspective from climbing or trekking and provide fantastic opportunities for mountain photography.

Thankfully, the COVID shutdowns relaxed and I could again travel to Nepal in 2022. The Khumbu was not busy and definitely not at tourist levels as pre-Covid. Thanks to Rajendra from Mountain Sun Valley, I was able to do the helicopter flight. When I contemplated doing this, I had a very specific route in mind which surprisengly was not easy to organize. Normally, the helicopter flyovers focus on Everest and Everest BC but I was interested in the area of the Nangpa Glacier and along the West Khumbu bordering Rowaling Valley. I also wanted to fly along the Cho Oyu - Pumori wall. We later covered the entire helicopter route on foot.

You can see the annotated photos here: www.himalaya-info.org/Khumbu_Helicopter.htm